According to a recent poll by Rasmussen Reports 3 out of 4 Americans, from across the spectrum of age, race, political affiliation and income, agree with Ron Paul and the 279 cosponsors of his bill (H.R. 1207) in the House of Representatives that the Federal Reserve should open its books to an independent audit.

This is yet another indication that the topic of the Federal Reserve is being pushed to the forefront of the United States awareness.

It was only a short time ago that Ron Paul would write legislation to abolish the Federal Reserve and it would be completely ignored if not scoffed at in Congress.

But since his surprisingly successful Presidential run, which scored a major victory in educating a large percentage of young people on the intricacies of the Federal Reserve System, fractional reserve banking and monetary policy, his fellow Congressmen have no choice but to sit up, take notice and sign on to his bill.

In a speech on the House floor yesterday, Ron Paul pointed to the fear that is becoming apparent in both the Federal Reserve System leadership as well as the leadership in Congress. He turned the old argument that is often used on the American people to pass legislation such as the Patriot Act and in defense of carrying out wiretapping…etc against the Federal Reserve. The argument that states that if you have nothing to hide you should have nothing to worry about.

Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve System demonstrated recently just how concerned they are with the momentum that House Resolution 1207 is building by holding a town hall meeting on PBS. During the town hall, Bernanke reiterated the same weak argument he stated to Ron Paul himself during his testimony before Congress. He said that by having an independent audit of the Federal Reserve it would politicize the monetary policy decisions that the Fed makes when contemplating a move in interest rates.

This argument is essentially a straw man, because H.R. 1207 does not give Congress the authority to go in and audit the Fed’s interest rate moves immediately after a decision is announced.

Bernanke takes that straw man argument a step further and says that the ability for Congress to audit the Fed would strip the Fed of its independence. But in reality it is already clear that the Fed takes cues both from the White House as well as Wall Street when deciding on where to place interest rates. Because if they were truly independent and had the best interest of the American public’s long term future in mind they would not keep interest rates artificially low, a practice that simply deflects a monetary crisis further into the future and continues to inflate a bubble.

When September comes Congress will reconvene and the youth of the nation will return to schools to be among their peers, the brushfire that is H.R. 1207 may be raging beyond the control of any Ben Bernanke town hall. It is then that all of H.R. 1207’s supporters may step up toe to toe with the Federal Reserve System. Neither side is willing to back down. If H.R. 1207 sees a vote on the House floor it may well be the first shot across the bow in a battle that will be the populous against the world financial oligarchy. May the best man win.