While campaigning in Iowa on August 15th, presidential candidate Rick Perry suggested that should Fed chairman Ben Bernanke resume his monetization policies between now and the 2012 elections, then charges of treason would be appropriate to be issued against the central banker.
Speaking just now in Iowa, Perry said, “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 history is almost treasonous in my opinion.” Treason is a capital offense. – Lizzy36 blog via Zerohedge
(See video to the left of this article for speech on Ben Bernanke and monetization)
Since Texas Governor Perry just began his campaign within the last week, it is curious why he chose to take a page out of Ron Paul's playbook and set his attacks on the Federal Reserve, and Ben Bernanke. Ron Paul's second place finish at the Iowa Straw Polls over the weekend make him a formidable foe, especially as a fellow Texan vying for votes in the Lone Star state.
Of all the candidates running for the Republican nomination, Congressman Paul has been the only one to this point who has spoken out on the Fed, and the only candidate who has directed his arguments towards the central bank's economic and monetary policies. Now however, the question must be asked why is Rick Perry choosing to address Bernanke and the Fed in his campaign when historically, his views on the central bank were in line with another Texan, George W. Bush?
Governor Perry is campaigning on a platform of fiscal conservatism, job creation, and economic growth, which he claims to have managed and stimulated during his time in office as Governor of the state of Texas. While on the surface it appears Texas has weathered the economic recession much better than most states, when you go deeper into the numbers you see that Perry's own actions differ quite a bit from fiscal conservatism. In 2006, Governor Perry supported and helped institute the Trans-Texas corridor (Nafta Super-highway), which would have been an international roadway from Mexico to Canada, and run by a Spanish corporation which would administer tolls and other charges on truckers and long-haulers. Couple this with a budget deficit of $27 billion dollars in 2011, and we see that Governor Perry is just as much a deficit spender as the current and previous presidential administrations.
Perry’s campaign website lists the Trans-Texas Corridor as one of his accomplishments, “Rather than taking decades to expand these important corridors a little bit at a time, Governor Perry developed the Trans-Texas Corridor plan.”But is it something Perry really wants broadcast as an achievement? The Texas Republican Party’s 2010 platform includes a plank specifically opposing the Trans-Texas Corridor. Some of the opposition to the NAFTA Superhighway has been dismissed as conspiratorial, but loud objections also came from people concerned with border security and one million rural interests and farmers that stood to lose their land to eminent domain. – Townhall.com via Free Republic
Governor Perry's call for charges of treason on Fed Chairman Ben Bernake should he resume monetization between now and the 2012 elections appears to be a political stunt meant to appeal to supporters of Ron Paul. Perry's previous actions and policies have been more Fed friendly during his time as the Governor of Texas, and since the public definately has their ire focussed on Ben Bernanke and our national debt leading into 2012, it is a calculated move to try to look like a Ron Paul fiscal conservative than his current label as a George W. Bush clone.
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