Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., seems to have struck a nerve with his “Audit the Fed” bill, S. 264. The Federal Reserve Transparency Act would require the central bank to be audited by the Government Accountability Office.

The House passed Audit the Fed with broad bipartisan support in 2012 and 2014, but the proposal was stymied both times when Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., then the Senate majority leader, refused to bring it up for a vote.

Now that Republicans have gained control of both chambers of Congress, the bill’s odds of passing have improved, and that has officials within the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration very nervous.

Sen. Paul’s transparency measure is “dangerous,” according to Jason Furman, chairman of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. Not to be outdone, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher tossed out a red herring saying “Who in their right mind would ask the Congress of the United States — who can’t cobble together a fiscal policy — to assume control of monetary policy?”

His point about the ineptness of Congress is well-taken, but Audit the Fed does not, in any way, call on Congress to “assume control of monetary policy,” any more than an audit of a private company’s books constitutes an accounting firm assuming control of the company’s business policies.

That argument also diverts from the Fed’s own poor record, which has seen the dollar lose 96 percent of its value during the Fed’s 102 years of oversight, not to mention that Americans have had less price stability than before the Fed’s creation and since have endured the most severe, longest-lasting economic depressions in our nation’s history.

“Some say the Fed is already audited,” Sen. Paul said last month. “Well, when the auditor came to Congress, she was asked the identity of the debt bought by the Fed. She didn’t know. When pressed on the case, she responded, ‘We do not have the jurisdiction to directly go and audit reserve bank activities.’”

This is precisely why a comprehensive audit is needed. That Fed and government officials would be shocked — shocked! — that people would have the temerity to demand to know how an unelected cabal of large banking interests makes trillions of dollars materialize out of thin air — and to whom and for what purposes that money is given — shows disdain for the taxpaying public and, perhaps, fear of what they might find out.

— Orange County (Calif.) Register