Gramm: Unlike The Rest Of Americans, McCain Supporters Aren’t ‘Economically Illiterate’ ‘Whiners’
Gramm: Unlike The Rest Of Americans, McCain Supporters Aren’t ‘Economically Illiterate’ ‘Whiners’
In a July interview with the Washington Times, former senator Phil Gramm infamously decried the “constant whining” of the American people when it comes to the economy, saying it was nothing more than a “mental recession”:
“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, he said.
“We’ve never been more dominant; we’ve never had more natural advantages than we have today,” he said. “We have benefited greatly” from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.
Gramm, known as Sen. John McCain’s “econ brain,” was swiftly criticized. Today, Gramm stood by his comments that America was a nation of whiners, but made an exception for McCain supporters. From his remarks to supporters at a Financial Services Roundtable in Minnesota:
If you’re sitting here today, you’re not economically illiterate and you’re not a whiner, so I’m not worried about who you’re going to vote for.
When asked about his involvement in the McCain campaign, Gramm simply replied today, “I’m a supporter.” But he may actually be involved in a more active capacity. Recently, he was spotted with the campaign’s top advisers. He is also reportedly still serving as an adviser and a surrogate, speaking for the campaign.
Maybe McCain’s wealthy supporters aren’t whining because they’re set to receive millions in tax cuts under the senator’s plans.
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42 Responses to “Gramm: Unlike The Rest Of Americans, McCain Supporters Aren’t ‘Economically Illiterate’ ‘Whiners’”
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No, they are not economically ignorant. They are crooks who have broken the law and are illegally creating huge monopolies to control prices, sucessfully so of course they wouldn't be whining right now, but just wait.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:01 pmWell if your readying from this blog, it's a safe bet you're a big ol' pussy! You chicken shit wimps.
Unbelievable. I wonder why so personal?
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:02 pmGramm: "Alright you whining sissies, what kind of cheese and freedom fries do you want with your whine?"
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:04 pmGramm:"these whining Americans kind of look French to me, 'Freedom Fries' anyone?"
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:06 pmGramm's recipe for economic recovery: Open mouth, insert foot.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:06 pmGramm did however express concern regarding the prospects of falling off the edge of the Earth which he is confident is flat. He then flogged an unemployed auto worker for being a whining sissy.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:07 pmKeep running your motor mouth, Phil Gramm, you aren't helping the GOP cause in the least.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:07 pm“You just hear this constant whining...despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy" -Gramm
GOP dictionary:
major export boom=sending former US held jobs oversees
If I get Gramm's logic, exporting more jobs overseas every year is great for Corporate interests. If only the unemployed and indebted would just stop whining about it. Don't they know that sending their jobs/livelyhoods/careers overseas helps their former company's bottom line?
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:07 pmClue me in Phil, since you have a Ph.D. in Economics:
1. Why did gasoline prices soar the 2nd quarter, especially when people cut their mileage up to 5% and OPEC complained of falling oil demand?
2. Why did the price per gallon go from $3.25 to $4.06? Why did oil company profits hit a record, yet again?
No politician or their fawning gaggle of economists have tackled my questions.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:08 pmOMG -- can we just put Phil Gramm front and center throughout McCain's campaign? Is there a way we can convince McCain that he needs to show off his "econ brain" as much as possible? Can we tell him that nothing else will sway the voters as much? (we don't necessary have to tell him which direction they will sway)
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:08 pmWhat's going to be fun to see is how the MSM spins this into how Gramm's talking points will actually help McI'mAPow because he's a MAVERICK, don't you know.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:09 pmPresumptious
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:10 pmOld
W
What a quote from the criminal, Gramm.
If you’re sitting here today, you’re not economically illiterate and you’re not a whiner...
Sure, only the economically illiterate are unemployed and uninsured -- only the economically illiterate are looking at their jobs being shipped overseas while their former CEOs are making 500 times workers' wages in bonuses, while the headquarters are located in a PO Box in the Cayman Islands, so they don't even contribute to the income tax base which would add to federal funds.
Phil Gramm is a boil on the ass of McCain, but instead of lancing the pus bag, McCain kind of likes it.
McCain has demonstrated an extraordinary irresponsibility both in his seleciton of who staffs his campaign, gives him advice and runs on his ticket.
Did you all hear McCain has hired Tucker Eskew, a man McCain once said would find a special place in hell for Eskew, for the vile manner in which Eskew smeared McCain in 2000? Well, he has been added to the brat pack with Rove, Gramm and other low-lifes who have now become BFFs with McCain.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:11 pm.
This is a Bush Base statement. Meant to appeal ONLY to the Loyalist Nationalist crowd. The rest of America can go to he||... NO?
The "Haves and have mores" ...
.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:13 pmToo bad Gramm didn't live in the time of Jefferson. In his last breath he would've said, "America is a nation of shooters."
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:17 pmGood ol' Phil! McLoser must be so proud.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:22 pmcaption contest:
Methuselah and Foghorn Leghorn Discuss Economics
Methuselah, "Hey Phil, have you seen my VP pick yet?"
Foghorn, "Yes-in-deedy, my friend. How much would you pay to hit that?"
Methuselah, "I'd sell off a coupla' Cindy's houses for a piece of that!"
Foghorn, "I hear that, Johnny! I'd give up the ol' Enron Loophole for an hour of heaven with her!"
Methuselah, "You mean a couple of minutes don't you, my friend?"
Foghorn, "Go Cheney yourself, puppet."
both old white men, "Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:23 pmWhat an election. You've got the red team that clearly doesn't want to win and the blue team who doesn't know how to win.
The Republicans are handing this election over and it would take a Herculean effort to lose this thing at this point but if anybody could find away it's the Democratic party. Common Democrats go for the throat and put this thing away.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:23 pmIt all comes down to making empty promises on social issues, to get people out to vote, and vote again their own economic interests. They will do it every time, if they think they are stemming the tide of gays and single mothers.
As a gay man of some means, I still vote Democratic, but when the Republicans sweep into office, promising to eradicate me and my ilk, when all they really want is to help the wealthy, they are actually furthering my cause more than Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank combined. You see, the gays benefit from these tax cuts more than most. Most of us are affluent, and most of us aren't all that interested in marriage.
I take all the extra money I save from the tax cuts, and funnel it back to the gayest of the gay causes. Add this to the fact that due to increasingly liberal voter registration patterns of the last few years, (the Republican party is dead, they just don't know it yet) the gay rights movement is quite secure. Thanks President Bush! See you at the parade!
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:25 pmHere is some of the Phil Gramm deregulation hard at work, stealing from every American driver and from the American people:
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.
by James K. Sayre
We're being ENRONed again. 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/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.
End.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 pmWhy do these 'pepople' keep 'speaking to the base'? Isn't the point of 'the base' that their vote is going anywhere? What good does it do to reiterate to the base and demean everyone else? Isn't it the 'everyone else' that you want to woo at this point? If I didn't know better I would swear they are trying to lose.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:35 pmWow, this statement is certainly as damning as the Reverand Wright Statements. I'm sure that the mainstream media will be hounding McCain over this the same way that they did with Obama.
riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhttttttttt
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:42 pmGawd, these people just don't know when to keep their mouth's shut. Why Graham thinks it's a good idea to continue to consult 90% of the people in this country is beyond me.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:42 pmkpaul
It's easy for anyone to find a way to undercut neocon ideology, but you, my friend, are pure genius.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:44 pmMarie @14, re Tucker Eskew, this quote is from an ABCnews blog concerning his hiring by McCain:
"This gives Democrats an opening to revisit Eskews criticism of McCain from 2000. His involvement as one of the Keating Five is pertinent information for voters in 2008."
Posted by: Steve from Danville
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:51 pm"If you’re sitting here today, you’re not economically illiterate and you’re not a whiner, so I’m not worried about who you’re going to vote for."
I wonder if Daryll was there to hear this because some of you may recall the brilliant investment advice he gave me - oil, oil, oil he said I should invest in, so I can be rich like him. Problem is the price of oil has gone down ever since he said that. I suppose if I was one of those speculators betting that the price would go down I could have made out like a bandit!
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:55 pmrunning_man Says:
If you believe that the republicans are these crooks who have broken the law and are illegally creating huge monopolies to control prices. What makes the Democrat’s any different? They are playing the same game as the republicans. Just marketing it in a different way and you have fallen for it. Naive little hippies!
And you are an ignorant troll. The Democrats are quite a bit different than the Republicans, but not enough for most of us. We are working to take back our government from you and your ilk. Too bad so sad. Your day is over.
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:57 pmThose listening to McCain define the middle class as earning up to 5 mill are the smart ones ?
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:58 pm28 Mary - Don't you just love the Republican economic boon. Look at houses, stocks etc.
The folks in the front buy it and then send announcements all over the place on how valuable it is. Other folk want to get in on the deal, so they buy in.
The price naturally rises.
The originals have made their money and cash out; though they often migrate to making money by showing you how you can get in on the deal. Meanwhile, so many other folks are getting in so that there isn't enough of a market for their product. The price breaks, and the newbies are left holding the bag.
See Housing Bubble. See Pump-n-dump stocks. see any number of infomercials.
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:02 pmMaybe McCain’s wealthy supporters aren’t whining because they’re set to receive millions in tax cuts under the senator’s plans.
That would have been my first guess, yes.
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:02 pmI can't believe any right winger isn't smart enought ot tell Phill Asshat to shut his pie hole.
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:07 pmThat's one person who needs a thrashing in the worst way
tony and lido
Oil had dropped another $5.24 to $110.22! Oil hasn't been this cheap since April 8, when it closed at $ 108.50! All the while dropping, even with a hurricane hitting La.
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:25 pmI'll bet the speculators that bought oil at $145.08 a barrel on July 14 for future delivery, are sucking eggs right about now!
“We’ve never been more dominant; we’ve never had more natural advantages than we have today,” he said. “We have benefited greatly” from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.
Nobody's denying that the already wealthy aren't doing well. The income gap is as great as it's ever been. Is Gramm really that stupid, or is it just blinded by greed that he can't see that unemployment, high food, fuel and healthcare costs are hurting working Americans.
And on the subject of stupid, how stupid does McCain have to be to listen to this moron.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:34 pmMapleStreet - I read a good article in the NYT called "The Final Days" in which this line caught my attention:
"Yet there are no valedictory days for Bush. For years, he got no credit for a long-running economic recovery, in part because of popular anger over Iraq. Now, it seems, he gets no credit for the improvements in Iraq because of deep discontent over the tattered economy."
What in Iraq's name did I miss?! What freakin' economic recovery?
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:35 pmI did kind of like this line, though, from that NYT article:
"One former Bush aide who spends his days publicly bashing Barack Obama sat down for lunch with me recently and before the appetizers even arrived lamented that the Democrat will probably crush McCain. He ruefully called Obama one of the three most talented political figures of his lifetime, along with John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan."
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:41 pmHey, since when did the GOP think "Crotchety Old Men" would be an appropriate campaign theme in today's world?
These two certainly aren't Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon...in any way, shape or comedic form. Maybe if you put McCain and Gramm on a sinking ship...wait!!!
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:53 pmPhil Gramm is using his firm psychopathically understanding of the economy to foster socialism and corporatism - look at the legislation he currently lobbies for and used to vote for.
Phil Gramm knows that we are not just whiners. He knows the United States currency is backed by nothing but the citizen's FAITH that their dollar's are worth something. I think he is just doing some sick and twisted reverse psychology shenanigans to somehow put faith back into the value of the dollar - or even more perverted - he DOES want our faith to fade to further tank the dollar... I would love to ask him.
The whole principle and function of money has been switched from an evidence of wealth to an evidence of debt. Why? because we as a country do not follow Article 1 Section 10 of the United States Constitution which demands gold and silver coin to be legal tender (crazy isn't it?). Instead we have allowed, and continue to allow, the Federal Reserve, a paper corporation, to control the flow of money; making it tight and creating unemployment or printing more and creating inflation. The Fed's power to create dollars out of thin air and loan it into circulation as debt against future production is the source of the inflationary depression that is coming to be. O how I wish for the days when citizens can turn their gold and silver into money, which increases the money supply as a wealth to the people, and exchange into circulation as production performed (crazy isn't it?).
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:56 pmIt's another way to blame the victim that these elitists have been playing for so long...
Antebellum South: Our slaves are naturally easy so we HAD to enslave them in order for them to be productive...
Today: People are only in poverty because they're so lazy...Never mind the people who work 3 jobs to make a living...
It's all in your heads. You're not really suffering, You are not really uninsured, you just think you are...
Perfect ad to slam McCain over with...
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:12 pmPaul W Says:
“We’ve never been more dominant; we’ve never had more natural advantages than we have today,” he said. “We have benefited greatly” from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.
Nobody’s denying that the already wealthy aren’t doing well. The income gap is as great as it’s ever been. Is Gramm really that stupid, or is it just blinded by greed that he can’t see that unemployment, high food, fuel and healthcare costs are hurting working Americans.
And on the subject of stupid, how stupid does McCain have to be to listen to this moron.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
Phil Gramm just doesn't care. If he could, he'd return to the days before those silly regulations really "oppressed" his poor, downtrodden class.
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:14 pmedit: Antebellum South: Our slaves are naturally lazy so we HAD to enslave them in order for them to be productive…
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 pm36 Mary.
I keep a spreadsheet of the percentage increase in the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 on the first day of the month - going back to 1966. Using absolute values, it is "fun" to compare the 2-term presidents. Basically the 2-term presidents in this period had a demonstrated rise by the end of their first term and a good market in their second term. Guess who the one exception is.
I also keep a graph of the market corrected by the rise in the Consumer Price Index (as a measure of inflation). When you do this, Bush II really looks bad.
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm.
Phil Graham = American Whiner
.
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:34 am