McCain campaign: Gramm’s ‘nation of whiners’ comments are ‘not representative’ of McCain’s views.
Filed Under: Economy
By on Jul 10th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
McCain campaign: Gramm’s ‘nation of whiners’ comments are ‘not representative’ of McCain’s views.
In an interview with the Washington Times yesterday, Sen. John McCain’s “econ brain,” former senator Phil Gramm, complained that America has become a “nation of whiners” over the economy because he believes “the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day.” “This is a mental recession,” said Gramm. Now, McCain’s campaign is distancing itself from Gramm, telling MSNBC that the “comments are not representative of John McCain’s views.” Watch it:
Unmentioned by the McCain campaign, however, is the fact that Gramm’s “mental recession” comment reflects McCain’s previous contention that “a lot of our problems today…are psychological.”
UpdateIn 2005, after admitting that he "still needed to be educated" on economic issues, McCain reassured the Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore by saying that he turns to Gramm for advice:
On a broader range of economic issues, though, Mr. McCain readily departs from Reaganomics. His philosophy is best described as a work in progress. He is refreshingly blunt when he tell me: "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." OK, so who does he turn to for advice? His answer is reassuring. His foremost economic guru is former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm.
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More dual messaging from McCain.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:07 pmStrikes me a kind of strange that a campaign would tout an economic advisor whose economic ideas are not representative of John McCain’s views.
Why exactly is McCain seeking his advice?
July 10th, 2008 at 12:08 pmOh, so now McCain is Hagee-ing Gramm. Apparently no one in McCain’s camp is on the same page as Johnny.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:11 pmSorry John, but in order to stay consistent in the guilt by association game your party so vigorously enjoys, your surrogate was speaking on your behalf. Mr. Gramms words have been spoken on your behalf.
What planet is that joker living on?? A mental recession? Unreal. I doubt the MSM will even touch this, but it’s reminscent of Obama’s clinging remark, and thus it deserves the same amount of scrutiny.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:11 pmFunny how this guy has to constantly distance himself from the views of his supporters and advisors while constantly being corrected in turn by his wives (you know, Cyndy, Lindsey and Joe). Can’t wait until he has a running mate to get into the act.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:12 pmGuido the Loving OBGYN Says:
More dual messaging from McCain.
- - I look at it as McCain being bi-textual.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:12 pmSame bullshit, different day.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:12 pmA lot of McCain’s problems are psychological. Both Gramm and McCain seem to be a few mortgage payments shy of preventing foreclosure, a few bills short of filling the tank.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pmhe believes “the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day.” “This is a mental recession,” said Gramm.
I swear, these people are like anorexics, looking in the mirror and saying that they’re NOT too thin. Everybody else is just imagining things.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pmPhil “Economy Destroyer” Gramm:
“I got mine, screw you America!”
btw, Mother Jones has a good piece on Gramm this month.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:18 pmhttp://www.motherjones.com/ news/ feature/ 2008/ 07/ foreclosure-phil.html
Here’s the link to the Phil Gramm article. Don’t know how to do the link-thingy, sorry.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:21 pmHey it does it automatically . . .
July 10th, 2008 at 12:21 pmHow does a left of center country keep winding up with rightwingnut politicians?
July 10th, 2008 at 12:22 pmIn April, McCain said that “a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological.”
Um…so McCain didn’t that? I get it now, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain…
http://progressiveworldreview.com
July 10th, 2008 at 12:23 pmFrosty Cupcake Says:
Here’s the link to the Phil Gramm article. Don’t know how to do the link-thingy, sorry.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
______
Came here to post this but you beat me to it. This is a must-read for anyone who cares about the state of our economy.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:23 pmHere in Ohio, the problems are real. To state them, and want some change is not whining. Let Phil come here and spend some days with a laid off auto worker and live her life, and see if he would whine. Heck, let him live on minimum wage for a week, he’d really be whining then. Jerk!
July 10th, 2008 at 12:25 pmI’m guessing this comment will not be covered as much as Obama’s “bitter” comment. Thank God for the liberal media.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:26 pmI guess Gramm doesn’t need his 401K to grow.
I guess Gramm’s house hasn’t lost 30% of it’s value.
I guess Gramm doesn’t pay for his own gas or food.
Actually he’s the one in a “mental” state that does not reflect reality. Pathetic.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:28 pmits a good thing that McSame and Obama are so much alike the ‘progressives’ are thinking of voting for Nader or other candidates…
otherwise I’d be worried…..
July 10th, 2008 at 12:28 pmFrom the link to Frosty Cupcake’s article (it deserves to be posted):
July 10th, 2008 at 12:28 pmGramm also said:
“Misery sells newspapers,” Mr. Gramm said.
You know what else sells newspapers? Consumers who have money and confidence in the economy.
The notion that news corporations would advance the idea of a bad economy to benefit themselves is just plain stupid. A bad economy does not produce more subscribers.
Get your John McCain NOPE t-shirts and stickers here.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:30 pmOuch. But very funny.
Ray Edmonds Says:
Is it possible to whine after you’ve been beaten unconscious? (not that I’d either want or encourage)
I suppose an involuntary whine is all they could hope for.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:39 pmI think it is a case of ivory towerism. Neither Phil Gramm nor John McCain are experiencing any kind of financial pain, so everyone else must just be crazy. This is the economic advice coming from the “get off my lawn” generation candidate.
“You kids and your darned whining about gas prices and foreclosures and stuff. You don’t know anything. Why when I was your age we had to walk 3 miles to school, barefoot in the snow from September to June and it was uphill both ways. Now quit your stupid whining and get off my damned lawn.”
July 10th, 2008 at 12:39 pmunbelievable Says:
How does a left of center country keep winding up with rightwingnut politicians?
July 10th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
______
Because the money and power is firmly in the hands of right of center corporations.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:40 pmAs his economic advisor, are Gramm’s views of the Commodity Futures Mondernization Act of 2000, otherwise known as the “Enron Bill”, which Gramm authored, and which was responsible for the California energy calamity in 2001, and which is now responsible for the current oil speculation, representitive of McCain’s views?
July 10th, 2008 at 12:41 pmWhere is friendly fire when you need it?
July 10th, 2008 at 12:41 pm“[Gramm’s] comments are not representative of John McCain’s views.”
Okay then, as Gramm is McCain’s economic adviser:
1) Which of Gramm’s views ARE representative of McCain’s views?
July 10th, 2008 at 12:58 pm2) Which of Gramm’s views have informed McCain’s economic views?
For anyone who’d like to understand the crazy kleptonomics of CDOs and NINAs and the other instruments that got us into this mess, This American Life did a fantastic show a few months back that explains it all in human terms. Listen or read the transcript - you won’t be disappointed.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:05 pm#26 Mark..
“Misery sells newspapers,” Mr. Gramm said.
You know what else sells newspapers?
The notion that news corporations would advance the idea of a bad economy to benefit themselves is just plain stupid. A bad economy does not produce more subscribers.
And you know what ELSE sells newspapers?
People who have lost their homes and jobs because of guys like Gramm and the media moguls who keep reporting fantasies instead of facts.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:06 pmI wonder what Phil’s wife, Wendy Gramm, is doing these days? She has quite an interesting past that has apparently eluded the “liberal biased news media”.
<a href=”http://www.apfn.org/enron/gramm.htm”ENRON’S Wendy L. Gramm
July 10th, 2008 at 1:09 pmOops! Here is the link:
ENRON’S Wendy L. Gramm
July 10th, 2008 at 1:11 pmYep. That’s the way to get elected… insult the American public…
And why does Gramm hate America? Criticizing Americans is unpatriotic… where’s his flag pin?
July 10th, 2008 at 1:19 pmFormer Senator Phil Gramm, Senator John McCain and President Bush have conspired to create the completely unregulated electronic oil futures trading market, which has driven up the price of oil to absurd levels… These three economic traitors should be in jail for fraud and associated crimes against the American people.
We’re being ENRONed again: this time by oil futures contracts speculators who are unnecessarily and very profitably driving up the price of crude oil and hence retail gasoline prices. Curious as to why you are suddenly paying over four dollars a gallon for gasoline? No, it’s not due to “supply-and-demand,” no, it’s not due to “OPEC,” nor is it due to “peak oil.” It’s due to totally unregulated electronic oil futures trading in world markets. Check out the very lucid article that explains the unseen financial machinations in oil futures markets written by F. W. Engdahl on May 2, 2008, entitled, “Perhaps 60% of Today’s Oil Price is Pure Speculation.” It may be viewed at .
http://www.financialsense.com/ editorials/ engdahl/ 2008/ 0502.html
In a nutshell, he suggests that the Bush Administration dropped the ball in January 2006, when they allowed totally unregulated electronic trading of oil futures contracts in New York. Previously these electronic trades had been made at the London Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures Market. With that decision by the Bush Administration, all of the world’s oil prices were then opened to upward pressure from speculative futures contracts. In essence, oil futures contracts made by speculators, banks, hedge funds and pension funds all competed with real demand on the spot markets and had the effect of driving up both wholesale oil prices and retail gasoline prices. Speculators have made billions of dollars on their trading of oil futures contracts. All of their profits come right out of our pockets.
Even with a stable oil supply, there is a slow worldwide increase in demand for oil, which creates a long-term upward pressure on oil prices. However, with the relentless saber-rattling and war-mongering by Bush and Cheney in the last several years, and the more recent war talks by McCain and the Israelis, the oil futures markets are rife with speculation and paranoia. This war talk keeps ratcheting up the prices on the oil futures contracts and hence the wholesale spot market prices. It is an endless spiral of greed and paranoia.
As long as there is no tough and effective oversight of the electronic oil futures markets by the Bush Administration, the oil prices will climb endlessly. These oil prices will be quickly followed by hikes in the retail gasoline prices at the pump. The 60% speculation share of the $4.25/gallon gasoline price, is about $2.55/gallon, which is what we consumers are paying to these oil speculators as a “service fee.” Not a bad “fee,” since the speculators produce no usable goods or services…Just a few large greedy oil futures traders helping themselves to your gas money.
Without this added-on oil futures “service fee,” you would be paying about $1.75/gallon for gasoline. Write, call or smoke-signal your Representatives and Senators today and suggest that they read the June 2006 report by The U. S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations entitled, “The Role of Market Speculation in Rising Oil and Gas Prices.” Then demand that they investigate and then force the Bush Administration to firmly regulate the computerized oil futures contracts trading in New York, London and Dubai.
This electronic oil price futures scandal is costing US drivers about $969,000,000.00 per day! That number is based on 60% speculation fee of a gasoline price of $4.25/gallon and on US 2004 consumption of 380,000,000 gallons/day. Tell you Senators and Congresspersons to simply shut down this unregulated electronic oil futures contract trading market. Then the price of gasoline will slowly drop to about $1.75/gallon…The only way that oil price futures contracts make money is if the price of oil goes up in the future, say, 30, 60 or 90 days later. This futures market serves no social need. It is just for corporate greed. The corporate speculators are probably also gaming/ENRONing the wheat and corn futures markets the same way.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:19 pmNot only is Phil Gramm responsible for the speculation which has caused $140/barrel oil, but he is also directly responsible for the mortgage crisis.
‘Forclosure Phil’ Gramm: How John McCain’s Closest Economic Advisor Helped Engineer the Morgage Crisis
…securities firms started bundling all these bad or risky mortgages and securitizing them, and then they would sell these securities or buy them and then buy swaps or sell swaps to cover the possible loss. So it really enabled a lot of firms to go hog wild on the subprime stuff and have—and the brokers who are doing this have no worry about losing, because they were passing on the possible risks of loss to somebody else who never really had to have the assets to cover those losses. And this is all sort of taking place off the books.
So here they were saying, “We were able to do this because of these unregulated swaps,” which some people at this community—Commodity Futures Trading Commission had wanted to regulate. And they were the lobbyists who went to—the financial industry lobbyists who went to Phil Gramm and said, “Listen, we’ve got to have these swaps unregulated.” They convinced Larry Summers, who was Treasury secretary. They convinced Alan Greenspan. And even though the bill was pronounced dead weeks before Phil Gramm did anything, he still managed to slip it through, get it passed by Congress when no one was looking, and no one even read it. You know, no one knew what was in this bill. And then the swap market took off, which helped lead to the subprime crisis.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:27 pmshoeless Says:
Oops! Here is the link:
ENRON’S Wendy L. Gramm
July 10th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
—–
Which one is he? ;>)
July 10th, 2008 at 1:30 pmhussein toasterhead:
“Came here to post this but you beat me to it.”
Great minds and all that stuff. :)
July 10th, 2008 at 1:33 pmraynman Says:
its a good thing that McSame and Obama are so much alike the ‘progressives’ are thinking of voting for Nader or other candidates…
This “progressive” understands the difference. One is a lying traitor Bush lapdog who shows up to vote for destroying the 4th Amendment after swearing to filibuster any bill with immunity while the other is a senile fckwit who cannot remember where his job is, so never shows up to do it.
July 10th, 2008 at 2:14 pmGreat choices for president, yeah right.
Either tweedle traitor Bushbot or tweedle grampy McDumbfck.
johnsom,
July 11th, 2008 at 3:01 amAre eighty per cent of Americans whiners? Because that is about the number who think the country is on the wrong track.
Seventy per cent think the war is wrong. Seventy-three per cent disapprove of W’s job performance (historical record). How come this high a percentage of Americans are “whiners”? They weren’t under Clinton!