Dis! Sanders Learns Of White House Plans To Kill Fed Audit In New York Times

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) keeps hearing from Rahm Emanuel about his proposal to force a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve. But the White House isn’t calling to tell him about new plans to kill his amendment.

The White House is hoping to cobble together a separate proposal, to be offered as an alternative to Sanders’ backers. The so called “side-by-side” would give them cover to vote down the Fed audit amendment, by offering them them a weaker plan to support.

But Sanders had to read about this plan in the newspaper.

“I read it in the New York Times,” Sanders said this morning, after a floor vote on a separate amendment.

Quoth the Times: “[T]he White House and the banking committee chairman, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut [are] scrounging for ideas for a so-called side-by-side amendment — an alternate proposal on the Fed that would give senators something to support while offering them cover to vote down the Sanders measure.”

“We’re going to do everything that we can to win this,” Sanders said. “Sixty votes is in fact a pretty high hurdle, but we hope to do it.”

In the last several hours, Sanders added two more cosponsors to his amendment: Alaska Sens. Mark Begich (D) and Lisa Murkowski (R). That brings his total to 22, including himself, with several others expressing support in principle for the idea of increasing Fed transparency.

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