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Barack Obama ridiculed a John McCain economic adviser Thursday who said the United States has become a “nation of whiners” suffering from a “mental recession,” as McCain distanced himself from the remarks. Phil Gramm, who now is the No. 2 at the Swiss bank UBS, told The Washington Times the U.S. has benefited from globalization but most Americans are misguided by constant reports that the economy is at its worst in 30 years. “You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,” Gramm, a former Texas senator, told the newspaper, adding that the presumptive Republican nominee will face an uphill battle fighting those perceptions. “We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he said. “You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in ‘decline’ despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy.”
Gramm later told a cable network that he was calling the country’s leaders whiners, not the American people as a whole, but stood by his “mental recession” remark. Obama, speaking about economic security to a women’s group in Fairfax, Va., said Gramm’s comments show the McCain campaign has no remedy for the nation’s economic woes. Minutes later McCain disavowed the Gramm comments, saying, “We are experiencing enormous economic challenges as well as others. Phil Gramm does not speak for me. I speak for me. So I strongly disagree.” Asked if Gramm might be in line for a job as treasury secretary, McCain joked: “I think Senator Gramm would be in serious consideration for ambassador to Belarus, although I am not sure that the citizens of Minsk would welcome that.”
But McCain has touted Gramm’s economic insights as among the nation’s best. “There is no one in America that is more respected on the issue of economics than Senator Phil Gramm,” he said in February.
So which is it Senator, either you respect his opinion or you don’t. Wasn’t it McCain who also said our economic problems were “psychological”?
>> #21
>> Yeah vote them out because the Democratic BONEHEADED MAJORITY is doing such a swell job. Open your eyes Greggy both parties are having a party up your ass.
I’ve noticed that lazy thinkers just throw up their hands and declare both parties corrupt.
But, clearly, the Republicans are the obstructionists.
“GOP Obstruction Has Shattered Previous Record”
Mathematics suggests that the current Republican leadership in the Senate has taken the practice to a new extreme. Former Minority Whip Trent Lott freely admitted back in the summer of 2007, that the “strategy of being obstructionist” was being deployed.”
http://tinyurl.com/5fm7bm
I’m so happy that Americans failed experiment with conservatism looks like it has come to an end.
My hope is another 50 years of benign liberalism and prosperity like before Reagan.
It starts as soon as we pay off this RECORD SETTING MASSIVE CRUSHING DEBT that the “borrow and spend” conservatism gave us.
#28: The “official” unemployment rate for June 2008 is 5.5%. The actual unemployment rate for June 2008 is 9.9%
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm
Maybe Senator Gramm was misquoted and he really said that we’re a nation of winners? Yeah, that’s gotta be it.
And compare that 9.9% to previous years…
Come ON, people. Didn’t McCain say that Gramm doesn’t speak for him? Doesn’t that automatically set the record straight?
I mean, after all, Gramm wasn’t saying the people who lost their homes were the whiners; he was saying the people who called the loss of those homes a Bad Thing were the whiners.
Geez, how much bigger of a difference could there be?
Doin’ a heck of a job, Grammie.
I recall Bush taking a question from a woman in the audience. She was COMPLAINING that she had to work two jobs to keep her head above water. Bushies response was “Two jobs?–thats good.”
So as has been touched on above, Graham is simply revealing the attitude of those in power. You see, capitalism works competition where the best ideas win, and bad ideas lose. Then you go into politics and rig the rules so that you and your Repug buddies win, and everyone else loses.
Winners always claim the moral highground, and losers always whine.
Poor people (aka less than $250,000 per year) who vote repuglican are like the poor white trash who fought for the South during the Civil War. Pure idiots.
When our legislators can SURVIVE on $20k per year…I will be happy.
I think we need to put our legislators on commission. The $20K/yr that ECA suggests is just a tad unrealistic, though a good idea in theory. But, how about tying their salaries to some multiple of the median household income and getting rid of all lobbying (probably 2/3 of their income in some cases)? Want a raise? Improve the median household income.
#37–Scott==way to think like a proletariat. Salary means absolutely nothing to our pols. Every person arriving in Congress leaves a millionaire. Finding the 1 or 2 exceptions in the past 100 years would be a quibble. Given where and how the pols make money, a slight and negligible cost offset could be had by auctioning off the offices to the highest bidder. Since money is speech, it even makes a lot of sense.
How can “money” be gotten out of politics? One way that is legal and doable would be to prohibit becoming a lobbyist after serving in government, and vice versa. The supposed “lost expertise” would be more than made in in the “reduced corruption.” Until then, and others more debatable (complete timely financial reporting, transparent legislative process), Washington will remain a cesspool of graft that we call our government.
#8 Jägermeister said,
>>Everything’s bigger in Texas… except for the brains…
No offense taken from that broad generalization. I am offended that Phil Gramm calls himself a Texan.
He is right of course. Our economy is based on confidence. Confidence in each persons ability to make money. Confidence in each other to make and circulate money. Confidence in our government to regulate it’s economy. Confidence in other countries to respect our ability to regulate our economy. When any of these confidences is stinted they all suffer. I believe we can all agree where the weakest link in this chain of confidence is.
Phil Gramm whined when people tried to regulate the S&Ls then Phil whined when people tried to regulate the subprime industry. How many billion dollar screwups does someone have to have before they lose their credibility. Maybe Phil can’t just wrap his head around the fact that the taxpayers are tired of bailing out his patrons.
#13 dg said,
>>The only thing that would cause people to do something so fundamentally self-destructive is panic — a human emotion.
The panic has already begun in California with IndyMac. Are Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac next?
From KD at Cage Match.
Maybe minimum brain size and state size are negatively correlated. Remember, if you cut Alaska in half, Texas would be the third largest state. And, Ted Interwebitubes Stevens is from Alaska.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE
Note, I said minimum. There are smart people in every state. We tend to notice the spectacularly stupid ones, especially when they’re in politics.
#43 Misanthropic Scott said,
>>Maybe minimum brain size and state size are negatively correlated.
Nope. I’ll argue that stupidity is evenly distributed throughout the nation. People are smart, crowds are stupid.
The possible exception is D.C., where stupidity may be higher per capita than anywhere else.
Scott, regarding lobbying, why are you so intent on trashing the First Amendment?
The real answer is to take power away from Congress so that the lobbyists won’t have much to talk about.
It seems the GOP ascribe to the concept of “thought crime”, where bad thoughts are now a challenge to their authority.
off to Room 101 with you!
Dont wine, beer instead:
If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago you would have $49.00 left.
With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1,000.00.
With WorldCom, you would have had less than $5.00 left.
But,if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all of the beer,then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have had$214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.
It’s called the 401-Keg.
He spoke the truth, which of course most people don’t want to hear. There is an epidemic of entitlement in our country. We need a bigger recession to cure some of these attitudes.