Phil Gramm is still one of the smartest men ever to serve in the United States Senate. This despite his clueless statement that the US is in a “mental recession” and that Americans are a bunch of “whiners” about the economy.
Well things may very well look that way to the former Chairman of mortgage giant USB and a guy who gets $50 thousand a crack to regale fat cat businessmen with stories of how stupid our government is and how the private sector is always smarter. I’m sure from the vantage point of someone whose idea of rough economic times is cutting back on the number of manicure’s he receives a week from 3 to 2, things are just peachy.
The former Texas senator can cite figures on why the economy is not in recession from now until Barack Obama takes the oath of office and it still won’t change the fact that the manufacturing sector of our economy is losing jobs faster than Gramm’s prospects for a cabinet position in a McCain administration. This means that Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan are for all intents and purposes, in an economic slide – a real downturn and not one invented by the New York Times or the Democratic party. To tell these people that they are just having a bad dream and to stop bitching gives those with a political tin ear a bad name.
“Technically” not being in a recession is like saying that “technically” I have the body of a Greek god, a mind like Aristotle, and the compassion of Albert Schweitzer – or I would have those things if I bothered to work out, read more, and gave a good goddamn about the rest of you. It’s all a matter of perception. And you can be “technical” all you want and still not grasp the fundamental truth that it doesn’t matter where they got the idea – whether you and Phil Gramm believe it was force fed the American people by a biased media, a sneaky and underhanded Democratic party, or if they read it in a bathroom stall – the undeniable truth of the matter is that most Americans believe the economy sucks and that they feel quite vulnerable at the moment to job loss, a loss of health insurance, and the price of gas making it impossible for them to maintain their standard of living.
Politicians don’t deal in “what ifs.” They leave that kind of thing to fans of the Chicago Cubs. Those who aspire to be president deal with the reality of the here and now. And John McCain, fighting perceptions of his own lack of understanding and compassion towards working folk, cannot tolerate nor can he afford his number one economic surrogate and advisor to run off at the mouth about the American people suffering from some demented notion that times are tough and that they should ignore everything that’s going on around them and be happy.
Things may be fine in some areas of the US but in the absolutely vital states of Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, there is real, demonstrable economic pain. What’s more, there is a palpable sense of fear in the air in those states. People don’t necessarily want government to guarantee them a job. They want to be reassured that their leaders understand what they are going through and that, true to our traditions and history as Americans – that things will be better in the future.
No, Phil. We are not nor have we ever been a nation of whiners. Whiners don’t build transcontinental railroads or criss cross the country with a ribbon of highways. Whiners don’t win three World Wars (going on 4) or liberate billions from oppression. Whiners don’t stamp the world with cultural icons like Hollywood or even hated McDonalds. Whiners don’t create a $13 trillion economy while the rest of the world stagnates into economic ennui.
John McCain has the right idea of what to do with someone who has so little faith in America, her people, and our future:
“The person here in Michigan that just lost his job isn’t suffering a mental recession,” he told reporters after a town-hall-style meeting at a factory in this city west of Detroit.And when he was asked whether Mr. Gramm — McCain campaign co-chairman, UBS Investment Bank vice chairman and former economics professor — might serve as treasury secretary in a McCain administration, the candidate replied with a flash of his sometimes tart humor.
“I think Senator Gramm would be in serious consideration for ambassador to Belarus,” he said, “although I’m not sure the citizens of Minsk would welcome that.”
Talk about throwing someone under the bus, McCain just booted Gramm through the windshield and ran over him. Definite road kill, the former Texas senator has become.
McCain has been straight talking his way across the old rust belt, telling auto workers in Michigan their jobs aren’t coming back, supporting free trade in Ohio, and talking energy in Pennsylvania. Will voters give McCain the benefit of the doubt because he refuses to pander to them? Experience says no, that the American people may not like pandering but they like hard truths even less. Perhaps McCain will get credit outside of the rust belt for telling it as he sees it.
But in those 3 vital states, his candidacy is now an even harder sell thanks to the insensitive, stupid remarks of Phil Gramm.
9:39 am
I live in Michigan. McCain’s only chance here is if people go out to vote against Obama. This election will be a referendum on Barry O.
It is Barry’s to lose. Things are tough here. Tens of thousands of mortgages are under water…manufacturing jobs leaving, and in the winter, it really, really, snows. Who is gonna buy my house?
10:47 am
Phil Gramm is one of the most corrupt Senators to have ever served in the Congress. The “Enron Loophole” was crafted by Mr. Gramm for his wife, who was with Enron at the time. The bad legislation stays with us as we now see speculators driving up the cost of gas through the Enron Loophole.
The most bizarre part is that John McCain actually still defends the Enron loophole – http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2008/051908Leopold.shtml
McCain is clueless about the economy so he has hired Gramm to teach him how to best profit at the expense of the taxpayers. McCain has some experience in corruption through his involvement in the Keating S&L scandal. Gramm may be able to teach him how to actually get away with theft without messy government oversight.
1:31 pm
Gramm is correct. If Americans aren’t whinners than why do we sit still as the elites propose tax increase after tax increase?
If we aren’t weak minded cretins why are we watching the government bail out financial institutions who carried out their bidding when Congress passed the Community Redevelopment Act. An act intended to grant loans to blacks, hispanics, etc who couldn’t hope to meet the requirements for a normal loan.
So we now see 2,000 foreclosures daily, up 50% from last year but equal to only two tenths of a per cent of all mortgages. Yet this will cost American taxpayers a trillion dollars so our senators and politicians can have sweetheart loans.
And what do we get? More of the same manure from both parties. Amnesty? Restricted drilling? Earmarks? Unending deficits and printing presses rivaling Zimbabwe?
Yeah Gramm got it right. If he didn’t Americans would use a flamethrower on our government. Instead we hear them asking for a government bailout.
Tell me again that Gramm is wrong.
3:13 pm
Actually, what Gramm said was 100% true; he was just dumb enough to say it in the middle of an election that McCain has no chance of winning, that’s all!
Gramm, enjoy it under Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s bus!
3:24 pm
Obama wants to expand Bush’s faith-based effort…
Taking a page from President Bush, Democrat Barack Obama said today he wants to expand White House e…
3:29 pm
“Politicians don’t deal in “what ifs.” They leave that kind of thing to fans of the Chicago Cubs. Those who aspire to be president deal with the reality of the here and now.”
if the here and now is the twilight zone I agree with you.
5:19 pm
Yeah, well, I don’t recall huge groups of people in government giving a crap in the early eighties when our economy (and oil prices)here in Texas went into the dumper. Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio have high taxes, treat lots of business as a tax base to be abused, and have horrible weather. They also have some great, smart people in them who are perfectly capable of turning this thing around if given the right opportunity. Thomas Jackson (3) above has it right.
I work every d**n day, and so does my wife, to make sure I pay my mortgage payment before anything else. Now I get to pay for those dummies who couldn’t figure out that they could not afford a 5,000 dollar a month mortage on 4,500 a month income? And I am being forced to bail out the mortgage brokers and mortgage lenders who gave the loan to them? You think the people in the rust belt are p****d, you better know I am.
Graham is not my favorite person, but he is sure right about one thing, there are an awful lot of people whining for the government to bail them out of the mess they got themselves into. Stupid and insensitive remarks? More like the truth, brother. Which is exactly what most of the whiners don’t want to hear.
Guess we disagree about this, R., but I still like your stuff.
6:02 pm
Who proclaims the dire economic circumstances for the masses?
The MSM!
Who whines about “our” sad state of affairs?
The MSM!
Who is the only one to get us out of any fix we find ourselves?
I am. You are. We will. We don’t need help from a government who led us down the wrong path from the get go. Wake up folk. BHO doesn’t know me or my situation. He doesn’t even care. I wouldn’t trust him to fix his own finances. Phttttttt!
6:19 pm
Response to Thomas Jackson, Post #3
The truth is that the federal reserve system (not part of our government, but a private monopoly) started the whole thing by flooding the market with liquidity – inviting debt, both good and bad.
We, as Americans have no say and either does our government. They print as much money and create as much liquidity as they want. They answer to no one and are siphoning off the wealth of the middle class.
When Americans begin to understand that we have no control over the federal reserve, then they will begin to realize that the federal reserve actually controls us.
Most in government and many in the media know this but won’t say a word.
12:04 am
Dale thank you for reminding me of Obama’s middle name. You are one sharp tack. Now, are you ready for Joseph (Stalin) Lieberman? Keep that chandelier well lit, son. Shine on.
12:57 pm
#7 is right. Where was the government when the oil industry in Texas fell into the crapper? When dozens of town in Texas, that depended on the oil industry to keep them surviving fell into not much more than ghost towns?
Michigan has been in decline for as long as I can remember. Remember Michael Moore’s “Roger and Me” movie? Full of propaganda, it was an attempt to show the decline of Michigan and how the goverment was doing nothing to help.
But what are the property tax rates in Michigan? How much is the state income tax and state sales tax? Do the brain surgeon’s in Michigan not understand that you cannot tax yourself out of poverty? Perhaps not since that seems to be the Democrats answer to everything.
The Texas economy was in the tank in the early 80’s becuase it relied on the oil/cattle industry for support. No one cared. Now CNBC lists Texas as the #1 state for business with very little economic downturn, low taxes (we don’t have state income taxes) and a state budget surplus. Perhaps if Michigan wants to do something about it’s economy, it should take a trip south.
And what does Michigan, Ohio and Pennslyvania all have in common? They are union controlled states with union bosses too stupid to make it in the business world on their own. So they drag down the industries that those states do have. And don’t give me any crap about being anti-union as I have been a member of the CWA for more years than I care to remember and I have seen how the CWA has handed it’s membership a bill of goods while it uses member dues to pander to the Democrats. (CWA vs. Beck)
If one industry is dying, you don’t try to prop it up by raising taxes. You seek other industries to create jobs. You make your state appealing, not complain about the evil Republicans.
Gramm was right. We have become a nation of whiners. To reflect on what we once were (pioneers who asked nothing from their government) to what we are now. A society that has become the people of the government, not the government of the people. If left up to the mindset of today, no one would live past the Potomac River, or the Mississippi River at the very least. We would all still be crowded into safe areas, waiting for the government to fix all our woes.
This government has become a system of reward for losers, and punishers of those who believe in self reliance and individual responsibility.
I don’t like Gramm, never have. But he was right. And for McCain to throw him under the bus shows that McCain is just as big a pander as Obama. Not exactly a positive trait.
Tell Michigan, Ohio and Pennslyvania to handle their own problems and take an example from other states that have pulled themselves out of the red and not look to any politician to do it for them.
1:03 pm
Hate to disagree but Gramm was dead on the money. He should have been a bit more specific about exactly WHO the whiners were – that would be the MSM and the Democrats.
There is ALWAYS someone on the short end of the stick economically. We’ve all seen hard times. The answer is to get out and solve your own problems. If the plant closes and you lose your job you hustle up a new one or move or get some more training. We do have a substantial safety net (unemployment, retraining funds, etc) for anyone with will and drive.
So times are not as flush as they have been the last couple of decades; they are by no means fatal for anyone with some energy. The conomy has to do some cycling or we’d be stuck with a bunch of dumb ideas that didn’t get weeded out.
Let’s get on with it.
1:39 pm
Whitehall, if all you hear is the MSM complaining about how bad the economy is but you still have a job, are current on your house payments, and manage to save for your future, you cannot be expected to think things are bad because you are being told by those [trusted] reporters that we are on the edge of an economic collapse.
Yesterday, when IndyBank collapsed, Shepard Smith of Fox was absolutely apoplectic. You would have thought the stock market crash was going to happen in the next hour, and a repeat of the Great Depression was eminent in a week or so. Smith, being the liberal he is, could not stop talking about FannieMae and FreddieMac and what was going to happen if those two dynamics folded. Can a new Civilian Conservation Corp be just around the corner? Are we going see soup lines, dust bowls (nah, global warming is taking care of that), children in the streets begging for just a bite to eat? To hear Smith rail on, it would seem so.
Let’s not forget that the Senate voted on cloture for the $300 BILLION boondoggle they are calling “mortgage bailout”. So for me, that means higher taxes so that I can bail out people who took interest only loans and now find they have to pay the prinicipal. Or people who falsified their applications with less than honest banks to get mortgages they couldn’t afford. All this while I cut back on other luxuries to make my mortgage payment and put gas in my tank.
Whiners? You’re damned right we are a nation of whiners. Millions of Americans have decided that it is not themselves who are in charge of their futures, but it is the government, and the unions, that are to provide for them.
Funny, while Michigan, once the auto capital of the world, sinks into ruin, Toyota just built a huge plant in San Antonio. Why not Michigan? Why chose Texas? Why did Mercedes pick Georgia? As I said, maybe the those in power in Michigan should take a trip down south.
3:53 pm
As to why the new auto plants are being built in the South, maybe it is the electricity. Those states have new nuclear power plants in the works.
Of course, they have lower taxes and less favorable laws for unions too.
4:08 pm
Republicans haven’t had their convention yet,get a clue and nominate someone else like maybe a Conservative that can beat a junior Senator from Chicago that goes to a racist anti-American church.Unfreakinbelievable McCain hasn’t dropped out yet but I suppose he still hopes to work with a Democrat majority Congress to make all his Mexican friends citizens with retroactive social security benefits,shoot he may even propose we go ahead and cede California to Mexico since La Raza would appreciate it.
2:36 am
bobwire Said:
12:04 am
Dale thank you for reminding me of Obama’s middle name. You are one sharp tack. Now, are you ready for Joseph (Stalin) Lieberman? Keep that chandelier well lit, son. Shine on.
bobwire: actually Moron, that’s BARBwire, but what the hell.
By the way, it IS Barack HUSSEIN Obama!
bob/barbiewire = just another Anti-American/Pro-Jihadi Democratic Traitor Leftist Nutbag™
3:30 pm
Just wanted to check in today, and let “barbiebobboy” know that I checked, and it STILL “Barack HUSSEIN Obama”, the fradulent, empty suited Marxist-Muslim practicing “Taqiyah”, who is HIS candidate for President of the United States!
I’ll check in tomorrow again, and see if “barbiekendollboywire” got the message yet?
3:06 pm
McCain demonstrates he can throw anyone under the bus just like Obama.
Guess the metrosexuals can’t man up.