that he'll announce a new jobs initiative in september. john king is cnn's chief national correspondent. americans need help now. the president apparently is going to offer something next month. >> next month because the president says he wants to talk to his economic advisers. they're reaching out to ceos. the white house says this will not be a repackaging of things the president has put on the table. extending the payroll tax cut, which the administration says hope to create jobs, extending unemployment insurance for people out there frustrated and can't find a job. the question is, what will they be. we know some will involve spending. government spending. house republican leadership have said that's stimulus. the administration says it will off set that spending with cuts elsewhere, so the president believes he will have the high ground politically. the question is, even when the president has a new package after labor day, can he get it through a republican house? >> he's been sort of letting out dribs and drabs of ideas, some of which may work. here's what the white house says the initiative will likely include. some tax cuts. some infrastructure ideas. measures that target the long-term unemployed and struggling sectors. diane swank is the chief economist at mesaro financial. we know this uncertainty about the economy makes businesses hesitant to hire. as an economist, what do you think the president should do and the president and congress should do that would boost business confidence enough to trigger hiring because we know businesses have some money? >> i think actually, at this stage of the game, the best thing that congress and the president can do is lay out the long-term plan for our fiscal solvency in the united states. that may leave some room for additional fiscal stimulus in the near term, but if we know what the long-term cuts are and the changes to the tax code will be over the next 10 to 15 year, we're in unchartered territory. businesses need to know what the path is. as long as they know that even if the path is rocky, they can deal with that. some level of certainty if they're given it. given some level, we'd see that confidence rise a little bit even if it's a tough road ahead. that's where i think we can have a biggest impact. everything else the president's talking about will only act on the margins. an economy only operating on the margin, that's important. >> it makes it easy to take political pot shots. some people want something that feels big and others think that anything big that comes out of washington is another stamp of big government. steven moore is the editorial writer for the "wall street journal." sooec steven, is it realistic to think that if something happens that gives diane what she is suggesting, that businesses might actually start hiring? >> yeah, it is. except the only difference i have with diane a little bit is i think it matters a lot what that path is. one one of the things that happened this week is that warren buffett had that famous piece "the new york times" talking about raising tax on the rich and president obama on his magical tour this week has really picked up on that. i think the more the president talks about things like raising taxes on investment, i think that is kind of holding back the economy a little bit an i wish the president would get off this kind of bearish message of raise taxes on the rich. let's get the entitlements under control. now the is time really fix the tax system once and for all. >> you and i agree on that. we both agree on the idea we need to fix the tax code and not just raising taxes only on the rich, although i'm more sympathetic to that than you are. it has to be a part of a more streamlined, better understanding tax code. a simpler tax code. broaden the tax base. we need to get these behavior distorting things out of the tax code for corporations so they can figure out how to plan going forward. >> there's one other thing the president can do right away. he could just call a time out on regulations. for example, you know, there's probably 100,000 jobs you could create almost overnight by allowing drilling in the gulf right now. this kind of black cloud of uncertainty about regulation is something we don't talk a lot about, but when i talk to businessmen and women, they say that's really -- >> we go back and forth on this. you have to take me out to lunch to explain, but the fact is, ultimately -- >> still haven't gotten together for lunch. >> we're way beyond the thing that regulation is mainly not driving businesses. >> there would be a job. i think it's really sweet that diane and steven agree on these things because nobody in your town does and we need them to agree. is there any likelihood that any of the very smart conversation we're having on this tv show might get replicated in a room somewhere in washington and somebody might say, let's get this done. >> the conversations do happen. taking the plans and moving them into the political environment because everything just mentioned, drilling, bringing entitlement spending under control, taxes on the rich or a broader tax reform, every one has a powerful political constituency. is the president ready to cut medicare and anger his base, are the republicans ready to give -- are the republicans ready to give the president a big deal on tax reform if he gives them lower rates across the board? will they negotiate that in the short-term heading into a presidential election in which this president, look at the data, back on his -- and the republicans know it. >> one thing i can tell you what almost complete certainty the republicans are l not allow is another big stimulus plan. i don't think the republicans believe this works and are saying look, we tried this already. hasn't working well. so the president's going to have to come up with some new idea. >> he might get some tax benefits. it's marichal. >> it's becoming more important in europe. that's part of the -- partly because of the political structure of the euro zone, but here in the united states, we've got rick perry saying that if fed chairman ben bernanke does anything, it will be treasonous. >> the fed is having to bear the burden on holding this economy together and to not understand what role the fed is playing in averting a double depression in the first place. the role that it played in stemming much of what was a worse crisis than the great depression. i think it's a very dangerous road to walk down to cut the fed off entirely and i don't want to go into, as much i don't like a lot of people in washington, i'm not threatening them. there's something very wrong with that. >> i like you all, so the only thing i'm going to threaten with you is that you're going to have to wait there a few minutes. what if the president and congress put the same urgency behind job creation as they did with solving the debt ceiling and what aren't they doing that? we're going to talk about it when we come back. 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>> can he? yes. will he, if you go back world war ii, the data tells you no, but again, the data didn't tell us we'd have our first african-american president or the tea party would come out of nowhere. it's a very, very steep hill for an incumbent president, consumer confidence diving. >> unless, john, unless he doesn't have an opponent who has a better plan. >> sometimes, it comes down to a choice, but often, it comes down to a referendum and people say you promised us something -- and we'll try something new even if it looks a little risky. people say, why can't these precipitations get along? the people bear some reasonability to this. in 2010, they sent in a new republican majority who said the opposite. the government is the problem. this isn't just ugly politics. this is a competition with some big ideas. they're fighting about big things and the american people sent them here. >> which is why later on, fareed zakari is going to make the case that a parliamentary system will work better. diane, you said something to me a week or two weeks ago that has stuck in my mind. particularly clearly when michele bachmann said that if she is elected president, she'll make gas $2 a gallon. you said something, you said if there were these silver bullets, someone who have shot them already. how realistic is it from an economic perspective that the president can have this type of control over growth? >> i guess she must be advocating for some kind of socialized subsidized system -- >> or a big recession. >> or a depression, actually. we have a very weak economy and look at where oil prices still are. they're still very high and nowhere near $2 a gallon on gasoline. i find it, it's just intellectual inconsistency for me, so i can't even comment on it. >> i've never seen diane actually speechless about it. steven, we have, let's just agree -- >> sometimes it's better not to say anything. >> it's clear as john said, we have differences in opinion about how we're going to get there, but actually, i think the american people are going to say, that's too bad for you. you have to get something done. we can't just plant people from different parties in washington to get nothing done, so what's it going to take to break this and come to the agreement that if more people are unemployed, we start to get economic growth and cutting that deficit. >> i think john really nailed it. these are bill, philosophical differences between these two parties and are represented by the conservatives who have totally different views about what to do. i guess what i'm saying is that i'm not so sure that the next 18 months is going the bring big solutions. that's why i think the 2012 election going to be huge because it's going to be a debate about everything we've been debating for months, about whether the government should have a bigger role. i think this, you know, we'll see what the super committee comes up with. i think that's the last sort of hope for a bipartisan agreement. >> these markets doing what they're doing and people's 401(k)s doing what they're doing, they're impatient. >> no question about it. >> they have every reason to be. the one piece of hope is that everybody's talking about the same thing and although we don't agree on it, all of us can have overlap and we have intellectual differences in terms of what we think is right, but we can agree on this show, they can agree when they try behind closed doors. >> you guys are optimistic. thanks for being here. i know from watching tv, you're all very busy, so thanks a lot. diane, chief economist, steven moore, and john king, you can watch him every night at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. coming up next, why rick perry has a problem with ben bernanke and why the king of coffee is taking a direct shot at washington, d.c. politics. i'll explain, next. 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[♪...] >> male announcer: now, for a limited time, your companion flies free, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. conditions apply. welcome back to "your $$$$$." let's talk politics and your money. will kahne and roland martin, both cnn contributors. also with us, mark preston. guys, good to see you. it is not completely clear, but i think the texas governor and republican presidential candidate, rick perry, may have threatened to beat up ben bernanke. listen. >> if this guy prints more money between now and the election, i don't know what y'all would do to him in iowa, but we'd -- we would treat him pretty ugly down in texas. i mean, printing more money. to play politics at this particular time in american history is almost treasonous in my opinion. >> okay, so i got -- mark, you're from massachusetts. right? i wonder if you're going to do this. you just sit this one out. i got two texans here. roland and will. i'd stay out of texas if i were ben bernanke. rick perry's fellow gop hopeful, rick santorum, who's said a few inflammatory things at times, joined president obama and others in calling the comments irresponsible. your thoughts or is that just how you folks in texas talk? >> it is how we talk. i've been saying this for months. we're going through a monetary contraction and we should print money. there is an intelligent opinion that thinks we shouldn't print money. rick perry attempted to here, but didn't have an intelligent conversation. he is putting an issue out front. i think listeners should understand. that's the role of the fed and begin to understand that monetary policy effects our economic environment. certainly, rick perry didn't do that in an artful way, but it's something we should be talking about. >> i know for once, roland is not going to say something bad about a fellow republican. >> actually, that's incorrect. first of all, that wasn't an intelligent conversation and i'm quite sure when rick perry goes to the people he wants to give money to his campaign, those bankers on wall street, those chemicals in texas, i'm sure they will say, no, thank god ben bernanke did what he did. it's also amazing that the policies of ben bernanke, who's frankly following a pillar of conservatism. this is a fundamental problem here. you know, rick perry wants to throw out these crazy kind of comments that sure, gets a reaction, but if you ask these people, what does the federal reserve do, they couldn't even answer the question. we have a financial crisis globally and we don't need people popping off, sounding like an arrogant texas cowboy, who wants to be president. have some sense and talk with common sense, not more cowboy talk, governor perry. >> i have never heard roland speak ill of a fellow aggie. were you a cheerleader? >> we have yell leaders. at your school, youf cheerleaders. but you're a t stamp, so that's what i would expect, will. >> mark, let's have a nontexan conversati conversation. you've been around rick perry this week. he hasn't backed off. >> no, he actually brought it up himself. he said the president was lecturing him. he was speak to business and political leaders. and he wouldn't back down. now, what's interesting that is that this is kind of clouded his whole message this week which was just about the economy. he was talking about the economy in very macro terms and taking a lot of credit for the jobs he's created in texas. you and i spoke this past week several times that has come into question. is rick perry really responsible for all the jobs down in texas. i'll leave that to the three of you to figure that out. >> once you declare these statements, there are some issues about whether the population growth reduces the percentage growth of the jobs he's created, but the bottom line is all of this is an aside to the fact americans are looking for economic leadership. it has not fully surfaced monster the republican presidential nominees because they're fighting each other on other things. where is the clearest plan and is rick perry in your running for that? >> i think that between republicans and democrats, you have an inherent philosophical difference on what an economic plan is. conservatives believe it's like planting a garden. you plant some low taxes. facilitate free trade and grow economic growth. i think liberals go, let's put some irrigation on this thing. false water. i think too often, liberal economists, overwater. i realtltoly tortured that meta. >> it's amazing how he called overwatering on the liberal side, but will could not acknowledge that when you throw out tax cuts, that's going to the extreme. 40% of president obama's stimulus bill was tax cuts. republicans don't want to mention that. the bush tax cuts increased our deficit. liberals want to go to the extreme. you talk about overwatering, will, lbut also, reasopublicanst to go to the extreme. >> we want to keep this conversation going. when we come back, i want to talk about the influence of corporate america on the next election. ♪ smile at me and then you take my hand ♪ [ female announcer ] nature valley granola bars, where delicious ingredients like toasted oats, with rich dark chocolate, sweet golden honey, or creamy peanut butter come together in the most perfect combinations. ♪ i was thinking that i hope this never ends ♪ ♪ yeah, i was just thinking ♪ i hope this will never end the markets never stop moving. of course, neither do i. solution: td ameritrade mobile. i can enter trades. on the run. even futures and forex. complex options? done. the market shifts... i get an alert. thank you. live streaming audio. advanced charts. look at that. all right here. wherever "here" happens to be. mobile trading from td ameritrade. number one in online equity trades. announcer: trade commission-free for 30 days, plus get up to $500 when you open an account. welcome back. starbucks ceo urged americans and fellow business leaders to put down their coffee cups and join him to stop all campaign donations until washington gets its act together. here's what he told poppy harlow. >> let's send a powerful message to washington that we want to see change. unfortunately, in this case, that change is about the fact that we're not going to contribute any more money until we ask respectfully congress to go back to work, reach a long-term debt ceiling deal that will remove the cloud of uncertainty in the world and i think begin to focus like a laser on the most important aspect of the american economy, which is job creation. >> you can watch more of that on cnnmoney.com. that kind of message, we talk about it. i've seen him on other tv shows. anybody in your circles do politics, anybody care? >> no. and that's utopian viewpoint. i'm sure there's several very wealthy folks who believe that, but they're going to play in the game because they feel they can act change. we see rick perry on the campaign trail, mitt romney on the campaign trail talking about how they can fix the economy. the only way they can win the republican presidential nomination and the only way is if you have money. of course, president obama's got his donors, so while you're see some sit it out, really not that many that will. >> will, clearly, most average americans think that corporate interest dick kate what goes on in washington. where is that money going? it is unclear. we thought once rick perry got into the race, there would be some culmination of donations that had blood pressueen sittin sidelines. >> we figured it out. most likely, if i was a betting man, i'd put it on mitt romney. i do think we should log guys like howard schultz. this is the way to invoke political activism. through private citizens and corp. races doing it this way. >> what do you think, roland? >> i think it's crazy for anybody to pay five bucks for a cup of coffee. >> but lots of people do. >> and i think they're absolutely nuts. look, i get the sentiment, but i think the problem is that we don't have enough people who are regular, ordinary people, who are investing in what is happening. in terms of what is going on. so, i get this whole deal about saying, don't give money until they actually get back to work. no, i think we need to have people who are organizing, mobilizing, marching on washington, who are showing up in congressional offices. not cutting a check is not going to solve it. >> you say you get the sentiment. i do, too. >> you get it, but -- >> we are, obviously, because we're on tv. but if you don't feel empowered by the gridlock in washington, what, roland, do you think most people should do. >> it is sensible because it is amazing people say, marching, that's old school. look what happened in egypt and other places. but also, again, marching is one thing. mobilizing and organizing is another. when you look at the civil rights movement, that is a perfect example of how this country was forced to change by regular, ordinary people standing up and saying, no more, i'm not going to tolerate an unjust history. >> i think it's odd and i don't know if you've done this personally, roland, so many people lament the effects of campaign contributions, and they're influence on politicians and now, the corporations suggest they might voluntarily withdraw their contributions, they say it has no effect. sounds like this is the exact right move. >> i'm thinking of the person out there who wants to give 5 and $10. i don't care what the corporations think. they're going to screw us recordless. >> mark, go ahead -- >> if i can, just quickly. roland's correct when he says that look, people should be more engaged in the process, but as far as them making a phone call here and there, that's not going to work. there's power in numbers and the way these numbers work is through donations to these front groups that are created that try to bring people together. there's always going to be money there. that's the fact of the state of play here in politics. >> i get mark's point, but the only reason i disagree, if you have 5, 10, 12, 15,000 people sitting here and mobilizing, they could switch an election. so you may have people who don't have lots of money, but when a member of congress sees 12, 15,000 folks show up, they're thinking, wow, that's votes. >> fortunately, the middle class doesn't do that that much. we saw it for obama, great grass roots gatherings, the tea party, but not right in the middle. guys, great conversation. >> don't forget, get them aggies. >> he was saying something about yellers versus cheerleaders. >> at his little school, they don't even know how to cheer. >> mark and i feel very left out of the this tex an conversation. the debt ceiling debate showcased the ugly side of the u.s. government. fareed zakari asks the question, does the government need a parliamentary system. ♪ [ male announcer ] they'll see you...before you see them. cops are cracking down on drinking and riding. drive sober, or get pulled over. the politics of the debt ceiling debate got ugly and it has to make you wonder if our system of government is broken. that's a topic taken on by our own fareed zakari on his public square blog. it's titled, "does america need a prime minister." fareed is never one to shy away from controversy. fare fareed, as soon as i saw this, i tweeted it out and got some responses within seconds, xh meant people didn't read it. the title is provocative, so i asked people to read it and get back to me because it's a critique on our system's inability to make fast decisions. something that has served america well in the past and may not be right now. >> when i was in graduate school studying political science, we used to read a very famous essay by a yale political sciencetist which talked about why presidential systems had a flaw that parliamentary ones didn't. david cameron is the head of the legislature and executive. so he can get stuff done and whether you agree or not, he has been able to do impressive stuff on the u.s. -- on the british budget. in our case, we've got a whole bunch of solutions out there, which are pretty sensible, middle of the road, a little taxes, a rot of spending cuts. doing it in an efficient way. but we can't get it done because our system has two centers of power. >> the president and congress and congress by the way, two sides of it, both claim to have the mandate. >> they both claim to have legitimacy, the mandate. it's a complicated story. the tea party says we won the most recent election. president obama says i'm the only guy elected by all the american people. who's voice are you going to listen to? now, there have been times when it has served us well. gridlock has been part of the american system. >> there have been times when as you said, paralysis worked. >> in 1945, the british implemented national socialist policy, we didn't. what i find in washington, there are serious area where there is a set of sensible central solutions that a majority of the public agree with. they can't get through washington because we have this broken system where each side claims they have the mandate of the people and the system allows them to veto. >> you have two or three or five political parties in a p parliamentary system. >> no, the you win the election, you get a go at it for four years. >> then they can grow you out. >> either it works or it doesn't work. i think the world we are living in where so many countries are catching up with us, where we need to change these antiquated systems of government, we've got to reform them. got to make them leaner and meaner. we need that able ility to make quick turns. will do some things that are wrong, but can correct them. think about social security, medicare, medicaid, energy policy. >> all of which we have all the data points to fix tomorrow if we needed to. we can't make the decisions. >> all we do is kick the can down the road and we have for 20 years. that's what markets are looking at saying, the american system can't work. >> one guy tweeted me back after reading it. he said there's nothing wrong with the system. it's work in the past. it's just not working now. it will smooth over and work again in the future. >> i don't agree because i think the system has gotten worse because the ability of minorities to veto has increased, so the filibuster, which is nowhere in the constitution, another bizarre invention that the senate came up with which allows one senator to hold up business and allows 40 of them to veto anything, that was used once a decade. 1940s, '50s, '60s. in 2008, republicans used the threat of it to block 80% of major legislation. senators now routinely put holding on nominations to an agency. they want pork in their district -- >> so stop this from happening so they can get that. >> you're putting more monkey wrenches in the works because the system allows you to do it. i don't think that's how it was meant to function so i would agree with your guy. if you were to say the constitutional system could work. we don't have the constitutional system. we have the constitutional system plus lots of monkey wrenches. >> i want to ask you one final question. that is these markets around the world are looking for growth somewhere. the big question underlying this turmoil is where will the growth come from that will pull the world back up? you have a view that maybe we shouldn't be looking for that. maybe it's just not going to be there. >> i think it's the most realistic scenario. i think that the reality is the united states is going to grow at 2% this year. not the 4% which everybody from the congressional republicans to the democrats were assuming. europe is going to grow slower than people realize. even germany. that's going to mean the deficit numbers will look worse. the debt numbers will look worse. the new normal that people talked about is much low eer growth. higher budget deficits. higher debt to gdp ratios. i'm not advocating it. i think we should have a vigorous jobs and growth program. for now, we're in a world of much lower growth. >> we may have to just find a way to deal with that for a while. always great to talk yo you. thanks so much. doent listen to these people who say you're trying to dismantle the constitution of the united states. $2 gas. great campaign strategy or a little farfetched? we'll talk about it next. and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal workers union. ♪ just weeks after down fwrading the country's credit rating, s&p finds itself in the hot seat. the justice department is launching an investigation into whether s&p improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities leading up to the crisis. chrystia freeland is here, also, richard quest. richard, let's start with you. we know these agencies have questionable credibility, but now, we're talking about an investigation into possible criminal wrong doing. your thoughts. >> the name of the investigation is whether the actual analysts wanted to give these securities a lower rating. whether the business managers at the firm said no, they have to have the triple-a rating. if it is true, then that is the serious matter and for s&p, which has already been lambasted for the way it hangs on to march backed securities and its times over the u.s. debt downgrade, i suspect if it's true and it ends up going forward, it would be very bad for its reputation. >> now, chrystia, one of the things we say to people, those global ones, the difference is, we don't pay for ours. these guys were making money on the deals they were those deals, which might have influenced their decisions to rate them better than they should have been rated. >> right, exactly. i think what this investigation gets at and i agree with richard, you know, an investigation doesn't mean guilt has been proven and we have to be careful, you know, to assert that. but what it gets at is the conflict of interest which is at the heart of how the ratings agency business works. you know, it is as if when you are on trial, you personally are paying the judge. and all of us can see how that is not really a system that is guaranteed to produce the best result. >> let's move on to something else. i thought we would have a relatively stable market week and morgan stanley comes out with this warning, it says, we're dangerously close to a recession, it cites policy errors made in the united states and great britain. it says the debt ceiling drama contributed to it. it also said we might need further intervention from the european central bank and the federal reserve. when it comes to financial stability, is this system of government causing us problems? we heard s&p first say t we're hearing morgan stanley, i suspect we'll see other people saying it is our political problems that are responsible for some of our economic problems. >> well, i think it is the political problems, but i thought that john king made a great point in earlier discussion where he said, look, it is not just that these guys, like, you know, kids in a playground, they can't get along, they don't have nice manners, there is a very real and very significant ideological disagreement that is a disagreement that i think exists in the united states and it is reflected by people with very strongly, strongly divergent views who have been elected and sent to washington. now, the problem is the economy right now is so frail and so weak, this is not a great moment for us to have, i don't know, a college undergraduate type, you know, session of all nighters talking about existential questions about size of government. as it happens, i also think, and the verdict that we are getting from market participants who are not making their judgments based on ideology, they are making their judgments based on what is going to go up and what is going to go down is that actually right now you do need government intervention, that the problem in the economy is lack of demand. it is not lack of money. companies have tons of money on their balance sheets, but it is lack of demand. it is unemployment. and because of this big political disagreement, i wouldn't call it dysfunction, i would call it sharp political disagreement. >> richard, if you're a central banker, i wouldn't make any trips to texas right now. >> no. and, i mean, i've got to be very careful because it does mesh you into the deep waters of the u.s. political system. but one does have to wonder what on earth he thought he was saying. and this is not the time to be taking risks with impromptu comments about the central bank when you are perhaps the front-runner or perceived to be one of the front-runner for the nomination. and that -- >> whatever you think of america, you're going to want to move here because you already pay higher gas prices than we do and it is going to get a whole lot cheaper in america if michele bachmann wins the presidency. she said on the campaign trail, this week, she said americans will save money if she is elected as president. listen. >> under president bachmann, you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again. that will happen. >> richard, i didn't hear the rest of the speech, but i suspect she also said i she can grow on my head, domesticate unikorun unicorns and make canada the 51st state. we'll have $2 a gallon gas in the united states, richard. >> right. and she didn't say how she was going to do it. and unless she's growing to completely rig the market, she won't be able to do it. if she's talking about, and i think she might have been macro economic policies that would lead to reduction of dramatic reduction in the global supply or global price of oil, well, which would she prefer? the dollar to be affected, would she prefer growth to be so destroyed that oil prices come down, there are a variety of ways you can do it, none of them palletable. i'm afraid it is a wonderful slogan, but if it was that easy, it would have been done. >> you know the three of us, none of us are born here. christa and i are both canadians. we'll wait and see what happens. it could become very attractive for the united states. good to see you. we're still 14 months away from the 2012 presidential election. you wouldn't know it because the intensity of this campaign is growing quickly. why all the candidates should be very, very careful about what comes out of their mouths every single day. my xyz is next. ordinary rubs don't always work on my arthritis. try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. time now for the xyz of it. as the 2012 presidential race heats up it worth remembering that words have power. texas governor and now presidential candidate rick perry would do well to remember that. perry's recent comments threatening to treat fed chairman pretty ugly if the fed were to print more money were quite frankly ridiculous and his comments have been criticized by both republicans and democrats. talking about the federal reserve, perry said out right it would be treasonous if chairman ben bernanke tried to use fed policy to stimulate the economy before the election. first of all, the fed chairman is independent, appointed to a term that deliberately does not correspond to the presidential term of office. this particular fed chairman has identified in the past as a republican and was appointed by president bush. and even if he weren't, calling a public official who is doing his job treasonous is beyond the pale and unbecoming of perry. treason is such a specific and explosive charge that the founding fathers actually included it in the u.s. constitution, defining it as waging war against the government or giving aid and comfort to its enemies. the fed, which acts independently of both congress and the white house, to shore up the economy and keep inflexion -- inflation in check hardly qualifies. now there are those who don't agree with what the fed does, or that it even exists. but they make their arguments intelligently and reasonably. congressman ron paul has spent his career articulating his criticism of and his objection to the fed. he's even writtebo