On August 16, 2011, Perry sharply criticized the Federal Reserve, stating that it would be "almost treacherous - or treasonous in my opinion" to be "printing money to play politics".
Another of the top-three-polling Republican presidential candidates, Ron Paul, who routinely criticizes Bernanke and has made "End the Fed" a major platform issue, also criticized Perry's comment, saying that "he makes me look like a moderate" and that, unlike Perry, "I have never once said Bernanke has committed treason."[REF] .