NEW YORK — Congressman Ron Paul, en route to Iowa to announce the creation of the presidential campaign exploratory committee, told an editorial breakfast of The New York Sun that “it’s tempting to just walk away” from the presidential race “but if what we’re predicting happens, we’re going to have to step up.”

He was referring to the collapse of the dollar and the threat of wider inflation and the damage they are doing to ordinary Americans, who are suddenly facing soaring gasoline prices and grocery bills and an erosion of their savings and the value of their homes.

The Congressman said he was not concerned about the talk about how a vote against raising the debt ceiling would lead to a default, saying America is in “a slow motion default now.” He was referring to the collapse in the value of the dollar to below a 1,500^th of an ounce of gold. The debt ceiling vote will come up in Congress shortly.

Dr. Paul, a physician by profession, voiced during the breakfast repeated frustration with the strictures of Congress, where he has for years found himself in what some have called “a party of one” because of his long commitment to sound money and opposition to even those government subsidies and interventions in the market that other Republicans are prepared to vote for.

The congressman brushed aside a question about whether if the exploratory committee leads to a full-blown race for president he might try to enlist his son, Rand Paul, now a freshman senator from Kentucky, as his running mate. It would be an unprecedented move, it was pointed out, and clearly permitted by the Constitution, which lays on candidates the requirement that they be 35 years old and a natural born citizen and from a different state as the vice presidential candidate.

At the breakfast Dr. Paul sketched what is emerging as the structure of a broad presidential platform, connecting the events around the world — including the turmoil in the Middle East — to the impact of the collapsing dollar and a global system of fiat money. He noted that much of the rebellion in the Middle East was triggered by the rise in food prices related to the collapsing American currency and inflationary policies by other governments.

Dr. Paul, a long-time advocate for the Austrian school of economics, said, “I’ve always been convinced since 1971 that the monetary issue will be the issue.” He added: “How can you accept a policy in which you [a saver] can put a dollar in the bank and get ninety cents out?” He suggested voters will not finding him focusing his attach on the Chinese Communists, who have been widely criticized for keeping their currency in what critics deem to be an artificially weak state so as to protect their export industries.

“Don’t you think it’s demagogic to accuse the Chinese of manipulating their currency when we’ve been manipulating our currency forever,” Dr. Paul said.

The congressman brushed aside any hopes that might be placed in the press conference set for tomorrow by the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, who is breaking tradition at the Fed to meet with the press in the first of what the Fed has indicated will be quarterly press conferences. He predicted that Mr. Bernanke would avoid talking about the dollar and that his remarks would be “spin,” a prediction he made shortly after the plan for meetings with the press was announced. 

Dr. Paul’s remarks at the breakfast were reserved. He avoided, in answer to a question, suggesting there could be a repeat of the seizure of gold assets that occurred under President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s. But he did say he was concerned about the danger of “more financial controls, capital controls” if the slide in the dollar continues. In response to a question, he said he supported Sarah Palin’s broad point about energy policy, focusing on maximizing production from domestic sources. “That’s what we need,” Dr. Paul said.

He was not, however, making any endorsement of Mrs. Palin or any other potential GOP candidate. Although he is now chairman of the House subcommittee on monetary policy, he spoke of the limits that come with that position. He has found it difficult to bring officials of the Federal Reserve in for questioning by the subcommittee, although the congressman seems to committed to nursing the idea of sound money in other ways. He has held one hearing at which a long-time advocate of the gold standard, Lewis Lehrman, and a leading journalist, James Grant, testified.

The most animated part of Dr. Paul’s remarks at breakfast was when the 75-year-old congressman spoke of the appeal his campaign is generating among younger voters. In recent weeks he had appeared at  rallies at four college campuses, including the University of Michigan, where, he noted, the name of seminal Austrian school of economics figure Ludwig von Mises elicited a loud and raucous applause. “It is not unusual now to go to a university and they’ll be an Austrian economist on staff,” said Dr. Paul. He added: “The young people now bring their parents in . . . the parents are very proud of their children.”

Dr. Paul expressed optimism about his support among Republicans at Iowa, where, he said, three members of the  state’s  Republican Central Committee are in his corner. Dr. Paul downplayed the significance of a poll taken a year ago by Rasmussen Reports, which poll showed Dr. Paul to be within one point of President Obama in a hypothetical contest. The announcement he would be making this afternoon was exploratory in nature, he said.