Perry stands by Bernanke "treasonous" remark amid criticism

Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in Walcott, Iowa

/ Charles Dharapak

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is not backing down from his controversial remark that it would be "almost treasonous" for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to try to boost the U.S. economy ahead of next year's election.

"I am just passionate about the issue and we stand by what we said," Perry told CNN on Tuesday.

At a Monday appearance in Iowa, the Texas governor said Bernanke's actions intended to boost the economy out the worst recession since the Great Depression are "almost treasonous."

"If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y'all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion," Perry said when asked about his views on the Federal Reserve.

The Fed has bought trillions of dollars worth of bonds, purchases referred to as "quantitative easing," in order to keep interest rates low and spur the struggling economy. The second and supposedly final round of those purchases ended in June, though the Fed last week signaled it may be willing to pursue a third round of bond purchases if the economy remains weak.

The comment was criticized by a number of high-profile Republicans, including former White House spokesman under President George W. Bush, Tony Fratto, and Karl Rove, a top political strategist for Bush.

"You don't want to accuse the Federal Reserve chairman of being guilty of a crime punishable by death, which is what treason is," Rove said on Fox News, where he is now a political analyst.

Rove has advised Perry in the past, though Bush's successor as Texas governor is no longer a Rove client.

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Perry officially jumped in the race for the White House Saturday and is already considered a major player. Perry has a double digit lead over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, according to one poll released Tuesday.

Rasmussen Reports showed Perry with 29 percent support from likely Republican primary voters surveyed by telephone Monday night. Romney garnered just 18 percent, while Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann placed third with 13 percent.

Bernanke, who served as a top White House economist under Bush before becoming Fed chief in 2006, has lowered interest rates and overseen a host of extraordinary measures to revive the U.S. economy which was officially in recession from December 2007 through June 2009.

20 Photos

Rick Perry on the campaign trail

[JackMeoph]

The constitutional penalty for treason is death by the way.

[greenlantern1]

Was Nixon a traitor when he ended the Breton Woods Agreement?
Did Senator John McCain use "poor judgment" in his dealings with Charles Keating?
Clifford Spencer

[TobyPogi]

Mr.Perry is just another wannabe,want to atract attentions, this person has a lots of question to answer and expalaination to make in the course of his campaign ,First.. he said he disagree the stimulus money,but he got 14.7 billions, then he said he created Jobs, guest what ,minimun wage jobs and layoff hundred thousand Teachers, then he said,he doesn't believe in Global Warming,but Texas suffered a big fire causes by drout and weather change, then he said he will turn texas to sessionist state,then he called Mr. Bernake a Traitor. Those are the initial explanations for him to make over the course of his canpaign. How pathetic this man,tsk tsk tsk.

[nearl451]

"Almost Treasonous" doesn't sound as if he has much conviction.

Kind of a feeler statement that a "Almost" candidate would pose.

[Progress4U]

Now what's REALLLLYYYYY "treasonous" is Perry's decimation of the Texas Education system and his state's #1 ranking in the national high school drop-out rate. Congratulations W2...Mission Accomplished, right!?!!?!?

[AttyFAM]

What an idiot. So the government should let the economy founder so that the Republicans can get elected. That shows that they care nothing, nothing at all for the people.

What was treason, however, was the Republicans holding a loaded gun to the head of America and announcing that they would have no problem blowing the country's brains out if they did not get their way on the deficit issue. THAT is treason.

[slatep]

I can't help but wonder if many of you really know what the Federal Reserve is.

The fact that the word "Federal" appears before the word Reserve
indicates to many that this part of the US government.

IT IS NOT.!!

Although the United States has been dealing with the Federal Reserve for years; it is a group of wealthy banker who answer to no one.

Not the President, not Congress, not the senate, not the United States taxpayer, not anybody.

I have decided not to watch or listen to any campaign speeches until October 2012.

The election is still many months away, and those running for office are just going to keep telling you what you want to hear; changing their agendas to be able to keep going with the flow.

We currently have a President who lied his way into Office, making promises he had no intention of keeping.

We watched and listened to him for close to two years, trusted him to do everything he said; and many people voted for him based on what turned out to be a total disaster for America.

We all know how that turned out.

Most of the money contributed to anyone; running for any office; is given by big business and the wealthy individuals.

These people are all bought and paid for and have no intention of
doing what they were elected to do; which is to "serve" the people of the United States.

In spite of what drivel is spouted between now and the 2012 election; they have already promised those who paid for them to be elected much of what is not necessarily best for the American people.

You have only to look at the "politically created" debt crisis
fiasco (raising the debt level) to see the depth of how far they are willing to go to serve those who paid them the most instead of John Q. Taxpayer.

Everyone last one of them is disgusting.!

[Bambi_B]

Interesting that his response was, "...we stand by what we said..."

Is he possessed by multiple demons? Does he have a frog in his pocket? Who's this "we" he's talking about?

Perry is right about the Fed - and not much else.

If you want to give America a chance at survival, vote Ron Paul. Everyone else is just telling you what you want to hear so you'll vote for another four years of Bush/Obama style government... which is about all it will take to completely kill America.

[mdiv2000]

So the folks who want to do everything in their power to keep the American economy moving are "almost treasonous," but the ones who allow their oaths to the great god Grover Nordquist to override their Congressional oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States . . . [and to] bear true faith and allegiance to the same" are patriots?

[tsigili]

If the Dems can call all the opposition every kind of name, then that comment is NOT out of line.