Texas Governor Rick Perry, who recently announced that he is running for president in 2012, had some harsh words for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday.
ThinkProgress has video of Perry in Iowa explaining that if Bernanke "prints more money between now and the election, I don't know what y'all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas." Perry went on to say that if Bernanke printed more money, the act would be "almost treasonous in my opinion."
ABC News has more on Perry's comments:
He added, “We’ve already tried this. All it’s going to be doing is devaluing the dollar in your pocket and we cannot afford that. We have to learn the lessons of the past three years that they’ve been devastating. The President of the United States has conducted an experiment on the American economy for almost the last three years, and it has gone tragically wrong and we need to send him a clear message in November of 2012 that new leadership is coming.”
Perry, who officially entered the presidential race on Saturday, was responding to a question from a member of the audience at a backyard county Republican Party fundraiser here who asked him what he would do with the Federal Reserve.
Politico reports that NYU economics professor Nouriel Roubini tweeted of Perry's comments: "Perry's Remarks on Bernanke are criminal. This Texan thug is making murder threats on the Fed Chairman."
Tony Fratto, who served as Deputy Press Secretary to former President George W. Bush, also criticized Perry's comments. Fratto tweeted: "Gov. Perry's comments about Chmn. Bernanke are inappropriate and unpresidential."
Perry's jump into the presidential contest has generated a fair amount of buzz. Former President Bill Clinton recently remarked that he was "tickled" to see Perry enter the race.
UPDATE: The New York Times reports that Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan addressed the Texas governor's remarks about the Federal Reserve on Tuesday.
"He is passionate about getting federal finances under control," Sullivan told the Times. "They shouldn’t print more money, they should cut spending and move much more rapidly to a balanced budget."
Sullivan did not disavow the comments in question, according to the Times.
UPDATE (3:30 p.m. ET): Rick Perry is standing by his remarks about the Federal Reserve.
"I am just passionate about the issue and we stand by what we said," said the Texas Republican during a stop in Iowa on Tuesday, according to CNN.
