On Wednesday Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified in front of the House Banking Committee. Congressman and Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul seized the opportunity to preach the message he has been trying to spread for over 20 years.

Ron Paul touched on several issues that most politicians in Washington most likely realize but seem to avoid interjecting into the discussion. Paul pointed out that 4.3 trillion dollars has been pumped into the economy by the Federal Reserve in the last two years, implying that the source of the inflation we are now experiencing should be no mystery.

Paul pointed out that history is not on Bernanke’s side as long as he continues the method of continually pumping capital into the economy, capital that is created out of thin air.

He told Bernanke that fiat money systems always come to an end and unless the switch is made to a solid currency, the value of the dollar is doomed. He went on to reiterate something that he has told Bernanke before, that the careless devaluing of the dollar is stealing money from those in this country that have saved.

Nobody in Washington seems to want to take responsibility for the mistakes of the past that have lead to the dollar’s plunge but rather most in Washington are willing to charge ahead and not allow a responsible, yet painful transition period to occur on their watch. So the answer continues to be extremely short term stimulus by way of rebate checks.

And therefore the country is faced with a national debt that is approaching 10 trillion and a stock market that is plummeting.

Conventional wisdom in Washington for sometime seemed to be that this economic slow down is merely a cyclical problem, but finally some are starting to come to terms with the fact that it is a systemic problem, mainly rooted in the international devaluation of the dollar. The game has forever changed with the end of the era that saw the dollar as king. Unless this problem is addressed, the United States economy is headed for an extremely harsh and painful fall.

Ron Paul has been trying to get the point across for some time that the problem can not be addressed unless the country is willing to drastically cut spending. This would mean the move away from empire and the reinvestment with in U.S. borders. There is not a willingness to do this by McCain, Clinton or Obama. Even Obama, who is sometimes mislabeled as the candidate of the anti-war left, would like to increase the size of the U.S. military. Where does that money come from? How long can we continue to borrow? How long can we continue to print? For those willing to listen to the reasoning of Ron Paul, the answer is…not long.