George Will Sticks Up For Gramm: Americans Are ‘The Cry Babies Of The Western World’
George Will Sticks Up For Gramm: Americans Are ‘The Cry Babies Of The Western World’
Last week, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) economic adviser Phil Gramm sparked controversy by stating that the U.S. is in a “mental recession” created by a “nation of whiners.” In response, McCain quickly tried to distance himself from his long-time friend’s remarks.
Today on ABC’s This Week, conservative columnist George Will acknowledged that the economy had slowed tremendously but nevertheless staunchly defended Gramm’s comments. “Phil Gramm was right of course,” Will declared. “Absolutely”:
WILL: On two points. … We’re not in a recession as commonly defined. That is two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We may be running there though. Even Bernanke says so.
WILL: We’re not however. Unemployment is just about the post-war average at 5.5 percent. His second point that we’re a nation of whiners: we are the crybabies of the western world. In fact, we have an extraordinarily low pain threshold.
Watch it:
As ThinkProgress noted, Americans are hurting, not whining. But according to Will’s logic, the pain from increasing homelessness, skyrocketing health care costs, housing foreclosures up 50 percent last month, and record oil prices is simply evidence of Americans having an “extraordinarily low pain threshold.”
With his full-throated defense of Gramm’s callous remarks, Will is echoing the likes of several Fox News pundits who have also taken to defending Gramm. Last week, Sean Hannity declared, “Maybe we do whine too much.” Fred Barnes added that Americans are “whining all the way through” the bad economy.
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I for one would be in favor of conducting a series of experiments to discover Mr. Will’s pain threshold. I have an old hickory baseball bat which I might donate to the project.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:13 amKeep it up righties. I love it. They are doing everything possible to cut their own throats.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:18 amWILL: On two points. … We’re not in a recession as commonly defined. That is two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Whether or not we’re actually in a recession is debatable, depending on the validity of the numbers we’re getting. It’s been well documented that Bush will alter what he doesn’t like.
But this is all besides the point anyway, the pain that working Americans feel is very real. With high prices for food, fuel and healthcare along with lackluster job growth and stagnating wages, we’re in an era where it’s no longer reasonable to expect our children will do better than we have and we’re already suffering.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
July 13th, 2008 at 11:19 amNote to Will: There is 100% unemployment when you don’t have a job.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:22 amJust another “pundit” who’s spent his entire life in a cozy little bubble.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:22 amThis is awesome!!!! They are SO winning the hearts and minds of independents. This is their version of the Jimmy Carter malaise speech. Every day they sound more and more out of touch with the Indie voter.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:24 amSo, to recap. Republicans promise pain free solutions to everything — cut taxes, which will increase revenues and balance the budget. Reduce government oversight, which will spur growth. Invade Iraq, where we’ll be greeted as liberators. Then none of the gains actually materialize. As a result, the same Republicans who promised gain without pain hang the “whiner” label on anyone who points out that Republican “solutions” don’t work. Are we supposed to ignore what is painfully obvious to anyone but Republican partisans and their media enablers?
July 13th, 2008 at 11:25 amhappy birthday to me
July 13th, 2008 at 11:27 amGearge Will is a PAID whiner!!
July 13th, 2008 at 11:28 amGeorge wouldn’t last a day at a real job.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:30 amDoes anyone know where the asinine definition of a recession comes from? It basically says you have to be in a recession for 6 months before anyone can declare it a recession. I don’t care what the definition is of a recession, but we all know we are in one and most of us suspect that we are perilously close to a depression.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:31 amPoor and middle-class Americans are losing their homes, they must choose between buying less gas or less food, are working two or three jobs to pay their bills, can’t afford to send their children to college and will lose everything they have if they should get hurt or sick. But thank goodness George Will isn’t experiencing any hardships. Thank goodness rich people like George Will don’t have to make any personal sacrifices or deal with the sacrifices their children must adjust to. We don’t live in a Democratic society, because if we did, people like George Will would be sharing our burdens and have a genuine understanding of how the Bush administration’s incompetencies have impacted our lives and the lives of our children. The arrogance, elitism and callous out-of-touch contempt that Republicans have for the less priveliged is palplable. I wish people like George Will would be all over the MSMs telling us and our children that we should stop “whinning” because rich people and their children are doing just fine, thank you!
July 13th, 2008 at 11:36 amThe “official” definition of recession was made up by corporate/government stooge economists.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:36 amOf course he’s in a bubble. In a country where the rich are getting richer, while the poor and middle class are getting poorer…it’s no surprise to see how out of touch the super elite are with the rest of America.
Sean Hannity and the rest of these millionaires will do anything in their power to defend a system that neglects the vast majority of Americans declining living standards, while empowering the top income earners.
These bastards are laughing all the way to the bank while telling you that high gas prices, high food prices, stagnant wages, falling living standards are all a figment of your imagination!
If your not angry about the situation, then your not paying attention.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:38 amNone of these defenders of Phil Gramm ever done a real work ,they don’t know what the word work means.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:38 amThey all have an easy living in very comfortable television studio environments ,sitting behind the microphone defending their political buddies in every day and twisting facts,defending wars calling for new wars…and they call this work.
These pundits get paid 100 times what a plumber or roofer makes…for real work.
Then they pocket money from writing books..but that’s not the way the average American lives.
I guess that’s why they think of Americans as whiners,because they never understood what the average family goes thru daily to survive.
It is no secret to anyone that the dollar power is shrinking vs. wages..which lowers the value of real money.
Everything is up, from driving and travel cost,to health cost,to education cost ,to food cost,to insurance cost and to many other costs that do not have the same effect on these pundits..
Any wonder why they think people are whining…!!
They are out of touch with American people.
George Will makes money not the hard …he knows nothing about average American daily life…he is simply an elite and his words about Americans are worthless if he thinks that Americans are simply whining.
Bilbo, you’re spot on. people who are suffering love to be told that they’re a bunch of crybabies.
Please, right wing, keep calling America a nation of whiners. keep telling us our economic pain is all in our heads. That’s a sure way to position yourselves as the Party of the People.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:39 amha… what’d i tell ya… via C&L blog roundup:
Seeing the Forest: Latest wingnut/unaccountable BUSHCO meme: Insolvency and heedless regulators are not the cause of bank failure. It’s Chuck Schumer’s fault.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:40 amUnemployment is just about the post-war average at 5.5 percent.
The figure cited as our unemployment rate is based on the number of people receiving unemployment benefits, not the number of people without a job. Once you’ve exhausted your unemployment benefits, you are no longer a part of the official unemployment rate. This important little detail is often left out of the conservative arguments where they try to say that unemployment isn’t as bad as everyone says. It’s actually worse.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:41 am1st Republic 14th Star says:
Don’t you know it’s a figment of our imaginations??? Sean Hannity told me so, it must be true!
July 13th, 2008 at 11:43 amUnemployment figures say nothing about the shift from high paying manufacturing jobs to low paying service jobs.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:47 amLook at the bright side of things — at least Will wasn’t wasting valuable airtime eulogizing Tony SnowJob.
FoxSnooze Sunday tried singlehandedly to put SnowJob’s death on a par with that of Tim Russert. Of course, the difference between the two is obvious. Russert was a journalist, a gentleman and a professional. SnowJob was a fraud and a hack.
At least, Will and the others on non-Fox channels were discussing important things. Then again, even Fox would have probably have ignored SnowJob if a high-speed police chase had broken out in Los Angeles.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:48 amGitrdone, YOU, are a great American!
July 13th, 2008 at 11:48 amthe trolls here
are getting lazy.
or are they just
giving up?
*
thank you.
#
July 13th, 2008 at 11:52 amHussein McCain Says:
Gitrdone, YOU, are a great American!
what about me?
*
July 13th, 2008 at 11:53 amAmericans having an “extraordinarily low pain threshold”
What this really reveals is the utter contempt and disdain that Will, Graham, McCain, and the whole Bush admin have for those not in their socio-economic class. They can’t come right out and say it, but that’s what they are really dancing around. There are varying degrees of animosity, I think, i.e., Bush/McCain think of the lower classes as children who need their guidance and discipline, while Graham and Will just wish we didn’t exist.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:53 amSpoken like another rich fat-assed white guy who thinks the rest of us are just peasants. Read more. http://www.tagg-lines.com/2008/07/bend-over-and-grab-your-ankles.html
July 13th, 2008 at 11:56 amJoe cantwell, YOU, sir, are a GREAT American!
July 13th, 2008 at 11:59 amso, like the “war” reports and pictorial evidence, the economy reports will become scarce…
that “out of sight out of mind” trick quits working at about the toddler stage… or soon after… if memory serves…
it’s for sure, repugs need their authoritarians…
July 13th, 2008 at 11:59 amI think, i.e., Bush/McCain think of the lower classes as children who need their guidance and discipline, while Graham and Will just wish we didn’t exist.
Make that “didn’t have to exist.”
Who do you think is going to cut the grass?
July 13th, 2008 at 11:59 amTHAT’S IT GEORGE….YOU MAKE SURE YOU’RE WELL HATED ACROSS AMERICA…..YOU AND YOUR ABC IDIOTS TAKE A BIG BITE OUT OF THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU
July 13th, 2008 at 12:00 pmWho do you think is going to cut the grass?
That’s true. Not to mention fight their wars.
July 13th, 2008 at 12:02 pm“I for one would be in favor of conducting a series of experiments to discover Mr. Will’s pain threshold. I have an old hickory baseball bat which I might donate to the project.”
-tokinlibral
How apropos. George Will loves baseball.
July 13th, 2008 at 12:04 pmThat’s true. Not to mention fight their wars.
They’re working like bandits to perfect autonomous “terminators,” so they’ll no longer have that problem.
July 13th, 2008 at 12:07 pmAre they trying to piss everyone off? Does the republican party really need any more help proving how out of touch they are? Insulting 75-90% of the electorate doesn’t seem like a good way to get votes. This sort of talk should have been quashed immediately after Gramm made the initial statement. Why are they perpetuating it? Keep picking at the wound and it’ll get infected. Is there some way that the count of your vote is proportional to your income that I don’t know about? That’s the only way this talk would make sence.
July 13th, 2008 at 12:07 pmGeorge Will, displaying typical Rethuglican empathy. How Cheney-like.
Now Obama raising the corporate tax rate, that’s really something to gnash your teeth and whine about, right, boys?
July 13th, 2008 at 12:10 pmWILL: “Unemployment is just about the post-war average at 5.5 percent.”
I haven’t checked that specific claim but just going by it…
why would Bush’s tax-cut driven economy that was sure to deliver increased growth, “12 million new jobs” (Bush’s claim) and make a “strong” economy even stronger show zero change in the 60 year-long unemployment average?
Just on its face Will’s argument is clearly disingenuous and in light of the present facts, recent trends and all the Bush admin claims made for their economic policies, it is of course complete bollocks (as it always was).
July 13th, 2008 at 12:14 pmGramm’s only updating the old Clinton line.
Now, it’s “I feel your pain, whiner!”
July 13th, 2008 at 12:15 pmWill also said about the Bush Administration possibly withdrawing troops from Iraq in advance of the election:
(Stephanopolous): “Who would it help more (McCain or Obama)?”
Will: The reason for the success in Basrah was the withdraw of British troops, forcing the Iraqi’s to stand up for themselves, which has been Obama’s position all along.“
July 13th, 2008 at 12:15 pmMugsy quotes Will: The reason for the success in Basrah was the withdraw of British troops, forcing the Iraqi’s to stand up for themselves, which has been Obama’s position all along.“
I don’t what this exchange illustrates other than Will responding to a simple ( and unnecessary) question with an obtuse answer (which also happens to be disingenuous at the very least).
July 13th, 2008 at 12:24 pmHussein McCain Says:
Joe cantwell, YOU, sir, are a GREAT American!
right back at you
and don’t forget to
vote this november.
*
good luck.
@
July 13th, 2008 at 12:36 pmIf I may offer a suggestion:
I’m hearing something more along the lines of,
“I got your pain right here, whiner!”
July 13th, 2008 at 12:40 pmBush, McCain and Gramm are economic traitors who conspired to create the unregulated electronic oil futures markets which have tripled the price of oil (and gasoline) for no reason except corporate greed. They should be in jail.
Further details:
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 13th, 2008 at 12:41 pmThe filthy rich are doing just fine, thank you, and Conservatives don’t give a damn about anyone else.
July 13th, 2008 at 12:45 pmgeorge will should have his tongue cut out
July 13th, 2008 at 12:47 pmI think 5th Estate is right. According to Republican Supply Side thinking, Tax cuts and deregulation were supposed to usher in an Era of Economic Growth and Prosperity.
Well…Bush had his way. Republicans controlled both houses of Congress..tax cuts sailed thru..regulators were hobbled…. Govt. functions were privatized.
The result: a tanking and scandal ridden Economy. And this may be just the tip of the iceberg. The cushion of Cheap, unregulated Credit is over. Foreign Investors no longer see the US Dollar as a safe bet.
The fact that America is NOT TECHNICALLY in a Recession may seem laughable, come November.
I just hope President Obama has some Good Ideas to fix things.
July 13th, 2008 at 12:48 pmGeorge Will doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The NBER, the guys who actually call recession, define it thusly: “A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.” It says nothing about two consecutive quarters of negative GDP, an increasingly inaccurate picture of economic health due to the treatment of goods assembled in the U.S. from import4ed materials, even more inaccurate in a time of deficit-financed expansion in government spending (GDP includes gummint spending). In fact the last recession didn’t have two consecutive quarters of negative GDP.
This recession is extremely problematic. The last six have all been caused by increased Feds Funds rates. This one is not, therefore a lowering of interest rates ain’t gonna have any effect. They’re already too low anyway. The other classic cure is government deficit spending. I don’t have to tell you how screwed we are in that department.
George Will continues to be an idiot.
July 13th, 2008 at 12:48 pmHow wonderful of the Republicans to keep telling all of us that we are wrong to be concerned about rising prices, lower real wages and job stability. The technical definition of a recession is so reassuring to parents hoping to one day send their children to college or just to have enough to buy all the supplies for this school year. Not to mention they’d like to be able to afford healthy food like fresh fruits and vegetables.
We may sound like we are whining to Gramm and Will, but that doesn’t make us wrong about the economy.
I do hope they keep this talking point going. I’m sure it means more votes for Democrats in November.
July 13th, 2008 at 12:49 pmIs there some sort of out of touch test you have to score high enough on to get on tv as a pundunce? Some kind of pompous blowhard scale that affects your air time?
July 13th, 2008 at 12:51 pmThere might be some truth to that. Americans have been coddled and insulated from the rest of the world, and have come to be unappreciative of things like hot water.
However, the government has always wanted it this way, by shielding Americans from the truth. You reap what you sow.
July 13th, 2008 at 1:00 pmI still go by the old agage:
A recession is when you are out of work.
July 13th, 2008 at 1:11 pmA depression is when I’M out of work.
My fellow whining Americans,
Take to the streets, make your statement through VIOLENT protest (marching peacefully doesnt mean anything). Hunger does amazing things to the human spirit. Its like we are in France circa 1789 without the contributions of the lower class.
July 13th, 2008 at 1:29 pmWhat George and Phil are saying is that it is not as bad as it will be so suck up and allow their reaganomics to rip you off. The thugs in the rethuglican party are evil people.
July 13th, 2008 at 1:50 pmamericans have been outrageously shielded from most of the most painful of the consequences of their uncritical habits…
most americans have no idea of the subsidies the govt pays so that the ‘voters’ can ignore their real costs of their over-indulgences…
July 13th, 2008 at 1:50 pmI have a question:
If a recession is two quarters of negative growth, do we have those quartera and THEN go into a recession?
Or is it more the case that we have two quarters of negative growth, and then they turn around and say, “Hey, you know what? It turns out we’ve been in a recession for two quarters!”?
George, if someone says ‘we’re in a recession,” that means what they’re saying is ‘we’ll have negative growth for the next two quarters’.
Oh, and George, once again: saying ‘But corporate profits are up!’ is not really a good strategy for you guys.
July 13th, 2008 at 1:52 pmHow I love these arrogant, self-serving multimillionaires calling the people who suffer “whiners.” Let them eat cake!
Consider “Foreclosure Phil” Gramm’s reckless role in our current woes:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html
July 13th, 2008 at 1:55 pmAs to the terminology, forget it. it’s meaningless. the underlying statistical reports and comparisons are so compromised by political necessity as to constitute almost wholesale economic gibberish. they’re just talking in tongues. the folks who really know what’s going on don’t talk about GDP or “recession,” either…they just move money around…
July 13th, 2008 at 1:55 pmWill is a major league pantie-wipe, who’s tuning up for a Fox job. Please George, spare us you thoughtful insights.
July 13th, 2008 at 2:15 pmDoesn’t Will always seem to be whining himself?
July 13th, 2008 at 2:20 pmAnd now the top two trough feeders with media access at their their disposal anytime they wish are now whinning themselves about the whinners. As to Phil Gramm’s comment about the poor being so fat is simple proof of how clueless he is about the diet the poor are forced to eat, nothing but paste and starches. Nothing nearly as close to the steaks,lobsters and other delicious and nutritious meals that they consume at Tax payers expense. Gramm and Will are dispicable humans and are typical greed apologists for the wealthy.
July 13th, 2008 at 2:28 pm.
George Will = ANOTHER whinny American.
.
July 13th, 2008 at 2:38 pmGood God, fcuking Republican’s have no desire to hide their intense hatred for America.
Good luck with all that “politicking” _sshats.
The Country, nay, the World is sick of your shit.
July 13th, 2008 at 2:45 pmLOL! Before, we are a nation of whiners as stated from Dr. Phil Gramm and now Grumpy old man George Will says that we are cry babies. The GOP are certainly making clownish comments. A desperate party will make desperate statements.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:04 pmThis one is not, therefore a lowering of interest rates ain’t gonna have any effect. They’re already too low anyway. The other classic cure is government deficit spending. I don’t have to tell you how screwed we are in that department.
The lowering of the interest rates this time has had zero positive effect for the consumers. Mortgage rates are higher today than they were 10 months ago when I got a new mortgage and the interest rates have been cut 3-4 times since then. The way it is affecting the consumers is that I am now only getting 2.5% interest on my CD’s whereas I was getting 4.5% 10 months ago. It seems to me that the lowering of interest rates this time is only helping the banks and not the consumers.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:38 pmMax-1 Says:
George Will = ANOTHER whinny American.
I’m thinking you mean whiney, not whinny. But, Will does act like a horses A$$ so maybe whinny is right after all.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:40 pmActually, that should be whiny, not whiney. Sheesh…I correct someone and make a spelling error with my correction!
July 13th, 2008 at 3:41 pm“cry babies of the western world”. “nation of whiners”, “mental recession” — and these are the hypocrites who viciously attacked Obama, drawing out the attacks for weeks, because he used the word “bitter”. They really are shameless & negative, and, apparently, love smearing ordinary Americans. And, of course, they support McCain’s tax cuts for the wealthy.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:42 pmGeorge Will is Americas gift this November in allowing the Dems to roll them over big time. You here that George? Keep it up and remember what your old buddy President Raygun had to say when he ran for the first time. Are you better off financially now compared to four years ago? You and your party will choke on that chestnut and that you can take to the bank. Thanks from a major mental whiner.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:44 pmThere are, or rather, were, a lot of different mortgage instruments, esp. 10 months ago. The interest rates on some were ridiculously low but they had escalator clauses or balloon payments factored in. The 30yr fixed was 6.25 in Jan this year, it’s now [Jun] 6.88. Ten months ago, however, it was 6.83. I got no clue what to make of that; perhaps it was just a seasonal surge (Sep is a month with lots of relocations). Some of this latest rise is risk premium, I’m sure. Some is just that the most shady brokers have crawled back under their rock. Your last sentence is absolutely spot on, an excellent summation of what’s happening to normal Joes and Janes.
July 13th, 2008 at 4:13 pmMy understanding of economics isnt great (probably still better than McSame’s though) but isn’t it conventional wisdom that the government strive to reduce debt when the economy is strong, and then resort to deficit spending when the economy is struggling?
Well, Bush turned that on its head with his first round of tax cuts, and dove into deficit spending in a strong economy.
Thus, when the slowdown hit, he had nothing to turn to except MORE deficit spending, which eventually took its toll on the international position of the dollar and credit-worthiness of US T-bills.
The “Bush recovery” was an illusion too, financed primarily at home by expanding consumer debt. The housing bubble, fueled by unregulated sub-prime lending, which drove demand for housing, allowed people to feel comfortable “taking equity” out of their homes, which was just another way of saying “take on more mortgage debt”. On top of that, when 9/11 hit, Bush’s “call to arms” was “go shopping”. So Americans took him at his word and spent more than we earned, adding to record credit card debt.
This debt-fueled spending was all that kept the Bush economy afloat the last five years.
July 13th, 2008 at 4:18 pmSounds like just more of the same — standard Republican operating procedure:
Part 1: If only everyone would get over the Vietnam fiasco and give Bush and the neocons a free hand to do whatever they wanted in Afghanistan and Iraq, we’d have won by now and gas would cost under $1 a gallon.
Part 2: If only everyone would get over Watergate and give Bush a free hand to spy on whoever he wanted, all the terrorista and traitors would have been rounded up by now and we’d be living happily ever after.
Part 3: If only everyone would stop criticizing the president, he’d be able to stop defending himself and do a much better job.
Part 4: If only everyone would stop saying we were headed for a recession and plow ahead confidently, there wouldn’t be any recession.
July 13th, 2008 at 4:40 pmGeorge Will lives in the past along with John McCain and “Forclosure Phil” Graham.
July 13th, 2008 at 5:12 pmBy traditional standards, the stock market entered a bear market just last week.
Anyone who is involved in trading this market will tell you the bear market began in January.
There are still people saying the US is not in a recession, or that there will not even be a recession.
Anyone who understands real time economics will tell you the recession began LAST YEAR.
These people live in a bubble. George Will, Phil Graham, and John McCain are immensely wealthy people who will never feel the effects of a contracting economy, other than a higher credit card bill when they get back from their european vacations.
I guess it is safe to say that all neo-conservative hacks are delusional morons who are never right but pontificate as authorities on most subjects. Why do they get space and time in the media? They are wrong on all counts and have destroyed everything they have touched since Ronnie Reagan declared war on the American People and their government.
July 13th, 2008 at 5:36 pmGeorge Will is experiencing a “mental boom”
July 13th, 2008 at 6:14 pmI believe the Bourbon family in the late 18th century thought the proletariat was “just being whiny” and they wound up paying for their lack of empathy with their heads.
We don’t use the guillotine in this country, but we DO use the voting booth. And we shall.
July 13th, 2008 at 6:47 pmF— George Swill and his hairpiece.
July 13th, 2008 at 6:57 pm“Unemployment is just about the post-war average at 5.5 percent.” — George Will
____________________________________________________________
I am so sick of people like George Will quoting statistics that boost their agenda without giving the entire picture.
First, an unemployment rate of 5.5% is nothing to brag about. That’s still high enough to hurt.
Second, that unemployment rate doesn’t take into consideration the following:
1. The UNDERemployed. These are the people whose unemployment insurance payments have run out and they have to take any burger-flipping job they can find, even though they have a master’s degree. They’re not counted in the statistics.
2. Temporary workers. These are people who, having been downsized out of their jobs, have signed on with temp agencies, hoping to get any kind of work they can (without benefits, natch), and hoping that will eventually lead to a permanent job. They’re not counted in the statistics.
3. Part-time workers. Many people who can’t find full-time employment will take any kind of part-time employment that comes alone, even though there are seldom any benefits attached. They’re not counted in the statistics.
4. Self-employed workers. Many of these are suffering because they aren’t getting as much business these days, since all their customers have had to tighten their belts. Plus this group includes all the mom-and-pops being driven out of business by the big boxes like Wal-Mart — ah, but that’s another thread.
All of the above groups of people have a few things in common. First, they aren’t part of that 5.5% figure Will brags about. Second, they all have less money than they once did — due to reduced income and increased outgo (gas prices, food prices, health care prices, etc. etc.). And third, most of the above people don’t have benefits that full-time employment often gives, such as health insurance, life insurance, sick leave, etc.
George Will using the unemployment rate to “prove” that no problem exists just shows his cluelessness.
July 13th, 2008 at 7:04 pmWho are those clowns kidding? They’re all multi-millionaires and they’re condemning common people for whining. These rich snots need to reread the events surrounding the French Revolution, circa 1789. Also study the history of blade sharpening.
Will and Barnes are two guys who even got beat up in prep school. Hannity was more likely to be one of the guys doing the beating. Sadism favors no class.
I hope most people are aware that Phil Gramme has escaped from three mental institutions.
July 14th, 2008 at 12:40 amAs a habitual and dedicated “whiner” I take these comments as a sort of collective “bring it on” from the punditry. That’s not a problem because the “whining” has barely even begun.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:56 pmScrew the Republican baby-boomers, their time has come and they’re done.
July 14th, 2008 at 9:05 pmHis second point that we’re a nation of whiners: we are the crybabies of the western world. In fact, we have an extraordinarily low pain threshold.
He’s right but he fails to recognize that it’s all these failed ‘liberal social programs’ that have provided our very comfortable lifestyle. If Will and the other neocons had their way, we wouldn’t have to worry about gas prices and buying a house. That would be only available to the rich. Instead, the ‘liberal social programs’ have allowed many to reach at least lower middle class who would have otherwise lived in borderline poverty. So when their safe comfortable world is threatened, of course they’re ‘whiners.’ They should be rich like George Will.
July 14th, 2008 at 9:38 pm