Let's recap. Former Republican Senator from Texas, Phil Gramm goes on national T.V. and says there isn't really a recession and American's should stop whining about it.
John McCain and his campaign either defend Gramm or stay completely silent. After tons of pressure from media, Democrats, and concerned citizens, Gramm, a co-chair of the McCain campaign, resigned in disgrace.
Three whole days later, Republican, Steve Forbes speculated on national T.V. that Gramm would still advise the McCain campaign on economic matters. We thought that was mental, but the Republican Party and John McCain remained silent... again.
A few weeks later, Gramm is not only raising money for McCain, he is being pegged as the Treasury Secretary in a McCain administration. Like usual, the McCain campaign remains silent on the Gramm front.
Today marks the first increase to the federal minimum wage giving the working poor a modest increase in their salaries. The problem with the modes increase $0.70 increase is the purchasing power of the dollar is on the decline, gas and food prices are rising, and the working poor are having to work longer, harder hours to make the same income as before.
This real recession is hurting our economy and American optimism. In a recent PEW report, less than 25% of American said our country is headed in the right direction.
American's and Texans feel the recession. Even George Bush says Wall Street is having an economic "hangover". This is why Phil Gramm was forced to leave the McCain campaign. Or was he?
FORBES: Oh, I think in terms of advice Phil Gramm will be critical, which is good because on things like trade he is absolutely right. I think John McCain has a long friendship with Phil Gramm, so this was something, Phil Gramm said something that you're not supposed to say these days, and he paid a price for it, but in terms of the relationship, I think it's as strong as ever, and in the McCain administration, I think Phil Gramm's advice will be taken to heart.
Excellent. John McCain will continue to get advise on the economy from a retired politician who wants us to stop our whining and realize this is just a mental recession. Fantastic. The stark reality is that it is the economy stupid. American workers are barely getting by and today's minimum wage increase is a stop loss towards a real solution. John McCain should renounce Phil Gramm and publicly state he will not be involved in any way with his presidential campaign. Americans deserve better. We all deserve a president willing to work and turn our economy around and not one who will ignore the problem and hope it goes away.
For the full YouTube video, click below the fold...
Phil "Mental Recession" Gramm was fired from the McCain campaign over the weekend. After telling America that the economic downturn was all in our heads and calling us a "nation of whiners", the senior advisory on the economy decided he might be a little out of touch and thus left the campaign.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Gramm cited Democratic attacks as the reason for his resignation.
"It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country," Mr. Gramm said in a statement Friday night - the traditional time to release bad news. "To end this distraction and get on with the real debate, I hereby step down as co-chair of the McCain campaign and join the growing number of rank and file McCain supporters."
Americans and Texans are facing an inability to get health care, they are watching their property taxes increase, the cost of gas skyrocket, and the strength of the dollar dimensioning along with the retirement fund. It seems mental to think that Gramm and McCain fully understand the economic situation we are in.
This confusion is probably one reason the McCain campaign didn't know how to respond with Gramm's insane assessment on the economy.
Mr. Gramm, in a handful of initial damage-control interviews, stuck with his stance.
The McCain camp sent mixed signals. He remained a co-chair, though top aides said he would no longer speak for the campaign.
On Friday, conservative columnist Robert Novak reported that Mr. Gramm would in fact continue to both advise and speak on behalf of Mr. McCain. That fueled a fresh round of taunting from Democrats and led to Mr. Gramm's ouster.
Phil Gramm doesn't understand the plight of average Texans or Americans. McCain and his campaign didn't know how to deal with the situation. The combination of the two gave voters an insight on how McCain will deal with problems (slowly) and who he will surround himself with if elected (out of touch old school politicians). Needless to say, after much confusion, Gramm is gone and the McCain camp is down "a confidant, top adviser and longtime friend".
Melody isn't a member here, she gave me permission to cross-post this here - I wanted to be sure as many people as possible see this piece of brilliance by a Texas woman:
Hey, Gramm: Texan to Texan, Kiss My Whining Ass!
by Melody Townsel
Thu Jul 10, 2008 at 07:26:21 PM CDT
Back today from the gas station and the grocery store, Phil, returning to my home here in Dallas to find yet another fistful of bills in my mailbox.
As I crack open a beer and settle down to a brisk session of online billpay this evening, I want to take a few minutes first, Phil, to kvetch. To bitch. To moan. And to tell you, as I listen vaguely to MSNBC on the TV across the room cataloguing a long laundry list of the factors -- ranging from the gutting of the Fourth Amendment to $4.11 gasoline to Disney having to fight gun-toting employees to the doubling of insurance premiums over the last three years -- of all the reasons so many of us "whiners" believe America is in decline.
Just a few brief minutes before I get back to work to kvetch. To bitch. To moan. To tell you a little bit about the way life is these days for this Texas single mom. And, then, to tell you to go fuck yourself.
Phil Gramm is a former U.S. Senator from Texas. During his time in the U.S. Senate, he served as Chair on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. While he was Chair, he received $1,000,914 in campaign contributions from the Securities & Investment industry. He retired in 2002, and became a lobbyist and, eventually, a Vice Chairman for UBS.
How is he tied to Senator McCain? Well, he's the general Co-Chairman of McCain's campaign. McCain had this to say about Gramm (from an excellent Houston Chronicle story):
McCain told the Houston Chronicle this year that Gramm is the smartest economist and political strategist he knows.
What makes Gramm so smart? Could it be his role, as a lobbyist for UBS while he served on McCain's team, in furthering the existing mortage crisis? From the same Chronicle story:
"Gramm's particular area is opening up financial markets to untrammeled dominance by speculative forces," said James K. Galbraith, a University of Texas economist who is advising Democratic candidate Barack Obama. "He's the sorcerer's apprentice of financial instability and disaster."
What exactly, though, did Gramm do? Only this:
As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Gramm was instrumental in pushing major banking deregulation in 1999 that critics say has contributed to the current mortgage crisis...The bank deregulation law, known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, was the most important update in banking laws since the New Deal. Its most important feature: breaking down walls between commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies.
Oh, that. There's also this gem from MSNBC:
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s national campaign general co-chair was being paid by a Swiss bank to lobby Congress about the U.S. mortgage crisis at the same time he was advising McCain about his economic policy, federal records show.
Wow. Could this get any worse? The man McCain thinks is "the smartest economic and political strategist" he knows is at least partially responsible for the mortage crisis. I mean, how much more damage could there be?
"The Enron Loophole was created by McCain campaign co-chair Phil Gramm at the behest of Enron--just one example of the special interest politics that put the interests of Big Oil and speculators ahead of the interests of working people," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
Dang. To be fair, Gramm denies his involvement with Enron. I guess we'll have to see how that one pans out -- but there's no arguing Gramm's involvement, as a Senator and as a lobbyist, in the current mortage crisis.
How about that for the smartest economic strategist McCain knows?
