Whiners
The latest gaffe in the Presidential campaign comes from our old friend Phil Gramm, the former senator from, you guessed it, Texas. Why anyone should be surprised that Phil would make a statement that would reverberate against him and embarrass McCain (he was his prime economic adviser until forced to resign last week), is hard to fathom. Some former quotes from the Senator:
More importantly, Gramm is the economic thinker who was one of five co-sponsors of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which critics blame for permitting the Enron scandal to occur. At the time, Gramm's wife was on Enron's board of directors.
As a member of the Senate Finance Committee and the recipient of enormous banking contributions, Gramm did an even bigger favor for the financial industry in 1999 when he sponsored the Financial Services Modernization Act allowing banks, securities firms, and insurance companies to combine. The bill weakened the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to help meet the credit needs of low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Gramm described community groups that use the CRA as "protection rackets" that extort funds from the poor, powerless banks. The bill is also a disaster for the privacy of bank customers and weakens regulatory supervision. As Gramm proudly declared, "You're not going to find a single bank, insurance company, or securities company that will say they were hurt financially by this bill." Following in the footsteps of this act is today’s sub-prime financial crisis.
Gramm’s accusation that we are a nation of whiners who are experiencing a mental recession, as with most gaffes, is not completely false. The willingness to attribute all our financial woes to this cause, however, is absurd, as John McCain hastily admitted and so now Gramm is out of the McCain campaign as his continued presence is too difficult to defend.
The political stupidity of the quote is not the problem. If you want to see what will be wrong with a McCain presidency, go no further. The Republican Party that has brought us the past seven and one-half years came up with no one better than Phil Gramm to advise the economically deficient Republican candidate for President. This pattern will be repeated over and over again if McCain is elected.
The same ideologues that staffed key US government positions, such as the Embassy in Iraq, only because they were conservative Republicans, but who had little understanding of the entities they were responsible for, have now “burnished” their resumes in K St firms and are the people who will be the key appointees in a McCain administration.
The Republicans need time away from Washington (at least eight years) to assess their inability to create meaningful strategies for the US and to learn from the series of incompetent actions that they perpetrated.
Gramm ridiculed a newspaper photo of poor people who were forced to cut corners to put food on the table. "Did you see the picture?" Gramm asked a crowd. "Here are these people who are skimping to avoid hunger and they are all fat! We're the only nation in the world where all our poor people are fat."
During the fight over health care reform, Gramm said, "We have to blow up this train and the rails and the trestle and kill everyone on board."
When an elderly widow in Corsicana told him that cutting Medicare would make it more difficult for her to remain independent, Gramm said, "You haven't thought about a new husband, have you?
"We're going to keep on building the [Texas Republican] party until we're hunting Democrats with dogs."
More importantly, Gramm is the economic thinker who was one of five co-sponsors of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which critics blame for permitting the Enron scandal to occur. At the time, Gramm's wife was on Enron's board of directors.
As a member of the Senate Finance Committee and the recipient of enormous banking contributions, Gramm did an even bigger favor for the financial industry in 1999 when he sponsored the Financial Services Modernization Act allowing banks, securities firms, and insurance companies to combine. The bill weakened the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to help meet the credit needs of low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Gramm described community groups that use the CRA as "protection rackets" that extort funds from the poor, powerless banks. The bill is also a disaster for the privacy of bank customers and weakens regulatory supervision. As Gramm proudly declared, "You're not going to find a single bank, insurance company, or securities company that will say they were hurt financially by this bill." Following in the footsteps of this act is today’s sub-prime financial crisis.
Gramm’s accusation that we are a nation of whiners who are experiencing a mental recession, as with most gaffes, is not completely false. The willingness to attribute all our financial woes to this cause, however, is absurd, as John McCain hastily admitted and so now Gramm is out of the McCain campaign as his continued presence is too difficult to defend.
The political stupidity of the quote is not the problem. If you want to see what will be wrong with a McCain presidency, go no further. The Republican Party that has brought us the past seven and one-half years came up with no one better than Phil Gramm to advise the economically deficient Republican candidate for President. This pattern will be repeated over and over again if McCain is elected.
The same ideologues that staffed key US government positions, such as the Embassy in Iraq, only because they were conservative Republicans, but who had little understanding of the entities they were responsible for, have now “burnished” their resumes in K St firms and are the people who will be the key appointees in a McCain administration.
The Republicans need time away from Washington (at least eight years) to assess their inability to create meaningful strategies for the US and to learn from the series of incompetent actions that they perpetrated.
posted by John Weiss at 1:09 PM
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