COMMENTARY | Bruce Bartlett, Former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and Treasury official under President George H. W. Bush visited CNN’s “American Morning” Friday and did not mince words as to what he thought of the GOP’s latest presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry. When asked about Perry’s blistering attack on Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve itself, and that printing money during the present economic slough would be “treasonous,” Bartlett bluntly referred to Perry as an “idiot.”
“Well, Rick Perry is an idiot,” he said, “and I don’t think anybody would disagree with that.”
Bartlett, also a contributing economic blogger at The New York Times, told CNN’s Christine Romans that the Federal Reserve had become dangerously politicized over the years. He noted another problem was the present administration’s distance from the Federal Reserve and pointed out that there have been open seats at The Fed throughout Obama’s tenure. He said he believed it sends a signal that Obama “doesn’t really care very much about what the Fed does.”
Bartlett also noted that no matter what President Obama says or does with regard to jobs and the economy, his hands are basically tied by Congress. Bartlett offered Obama was left with merely trying to give some hope to his base, but that “… anything that would be substantive would require congressional action which is basically impossible.”
It is more or less the same message Obama sent during his bus tour through the Midwest, albeit with an emphasis that Republicans were mostly to blame. Congressional gridlock, exemplified by the recent months-long impasse in the debt ceiling debate, was not helping the country’s economic situation.
Later in the broadcast, the former Treasury official was asked to expound upon his “idiot” comment, given that Perry — with backing by Fox News contributor Sarah Palin — was constantly attacking the Federal Reserve. Was such talk hurting the average American’s understanding of the situation and the state of the economy?
“Well, it has people thinking that the Fed doing its normal job is somehow a treasonous act is grossly irresponsible,” Bartlett said, “and to the extent that people think that Perry knows what he’s talking about, it does put a constraint on the Federal Reserve to be able to be more aggressive, which I think that it should be.
“The idea that we’re debasing the currency,” he continued, “is just the grossest nonsense. You can find the data as easily as I can and show that Ben Bernanke has probably had the lowest level of inflation as Fed chairman than any Fed chairman in history. So, if any — if he’s to be criticized for anything it’s deflation, not inflation.”
But it appears that economic “idiot” or not, Perry has touched a responsive nerve among the Republican electorate. The first national poll conducted since his formal announcement of running for the presidency places him well atop the field of GOP contenders. Rasmussen Reports revealed that a survey taken just two days after his declaration put him 11 points ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who had led most national polls since mid-May.