"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," the former Texas senator told attendees at a Financial Services Roundtable event in Minneapolis on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention.
In reaction to today's comments, Democratic nominee Barack Obama's campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said, "The man who wrote John McCain's economic plan further insulted struggling Americans by suggesting that if they are not attending the Republican Convention, they are not only whiners, but economically illiterate."
Really Phil? Really? Are they just trying to distract us from the Sarah Palin debacle?
Gramm also used the term "We" when discussing the vetting of Sarah Palin, but when asked what role he has in the McCain campaign he said, "I'm just a supporter."
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45 comments:
Doesn't it remind you of an evil version of Stadler and Waldorf?
Does it matter if he's right?
You've got to be kidding! I admit that Phil Gramm is a bit blunt with what he's saying, but that's the truth and someone has to say it, harsh or not.
What is the "Sarah Palin debacle"... the fact that her daughter is pregnant. I'd be willing to bet half of the people voting for Obama don't even know who their father is?
Pretty darn blunt and pretty darn true. Sometimes the truth is painful to some.
failure of logic?
people who are here are not illiterate does not equal people that aren't here are illiterate
OK, before we all go off the deep end, let's admit one simple fact: meritocracy is racism. To expect citizenship units of color to compete on an equal footing with the melatonin-deficient is inherently unfair. You Know Who liked white people, too.
The real issue here is that Sen. Obama, Peace Be Upon Him, plans to increase government services and taxes on the rich. That way, the wealthy will have even more of an incentive to move their property offshore, and finally America will be rid of the exploiter class.
I have a degree in Economics, and I can tell you that given just how impossibly complex the economy truly is, nobody really knows for a 100% certainty how the market will respond to a givne stimulus. Anybody, and I mean ANYBODY, that tells you that he knows exactly how to treat the economy, to such a degree of certainty that anyone who disagrees with him must simply not be smart enough to see that he's right, is either trying to deceive you or has succesfully deceived himself.
That said, Lay off of Palin's kid. Obama has asked all of his supporters to leave a politician's family out of the debate, and I think we should honor that request. there is a plethera of legitimate reasons to think she's a bad candidate for VP, all of them better than her daughter made a mistake.
If you support Borack Obama, honor his request to leave her family alone.
bensmith14:
I have never mentioned Palin's kid anywhere on this website. I posted that Palin would be a disaster on July 24th.
http://www.topshelfdogfood.com/2008/07/milftastic-alaska-governor-wont-be.html
When most of the voters have already decided to vote for whomever is from a certain party, we can not count on the best leader being president.
I stopped listing to Corporations, when Tucker Carlson starting trying to educate people on politics...
The Word FAIL comes to mind.
The only truth here is the Republicans are losing a grip, if McCain is there best then they are truly sad group.
I LOL'd, look at that picture... they are the future of OLD PEOPLE, people!
My friends, the Sarah Palin debacle is not that Sarah Palin has a daughter pregnant out of wedlock. I wish the girl all the best and will do my best not to patronize any site that traffics in such rumors.
The Sarah Palin debacle is that John McCain picked Sarah Palin, a nobody with no real experience, while running on a platform of being more qualified. The Sarah Palin debacle is that Mr. Mccain did so with, from what I've been able to find, without actually vetting her. The debacle is that Sarah Palin has been a governor for less time than John McCain has been running for president... this time. The Sarah Palin debacle is that one of the two major parties is running a vp candidate who, two weeks before the selection, freely admitted ignorance of the role of the Vice President and whose husband, an executive in a foreign oil company, sits in on her meetings. The Sarah Palin debacle is Sarah Palin's selection, and nothing else.
And please, republicans, I beg of you, stop calling this a triumph for women. She was chosen not because she is the best choice or most qualified (and dear god, is she neither), but BECAUSE she was a woman (with fringe right-wing views to make her appeal to the evangelicals who mistrusted McCain) and the Hillary voters were (supposedly) willing to leave the party to follow a woman, any woman, to the white house. Choosing a running mate based on her sex making her a useful political tool? That, my friends, is called sexism.
if John McCain gets elected, Sarah Palin will have a better chance of becoming The President of The United States than Gerald Ford ever had.
"I'd be willing to bet half of the people voting for Obama don't even know who their father is?"
Wow...that's pretty ignorant.
bensmith14 and mister weazle are both entirely correct. I'd also like to add that, despite running on a family values platform, I'd say that leaving your disabled newborn at home to go on the campaign trail is pretty much the opposite of any family values I was ever taught.
Mr. Weazle is right about the sexism comment...
Because ALL of the Obama supporters who are voting for him because he is the first viable black candidate are just as racist as those supporting Palin for being a woman are sexist.
But that is "okay" I guess. You can vote for Obama because he is black, but you can't vote for Palin because she is a woman. The hypocrisy of both parties' ridiculousness continues!
I'm pretty sure that McCain admitted that he knew nothing about the economy not too long ago. Well, neither did Bush and that didn't stop him I guess.
And Gramm, BTW, Illiterate != Ignorance
I'm a Libertarian, so I get to pretend to be independent here... The Democrats are currently the Party of Fiscal Responsibility, and they didn't get that way by acquiring any clues - they got that way by default, while the Republicans went spending money like drunken Kennedys. Taxation is economically bad, but government borrowing is not only deferred taxation, but it's impossible to escape its effects in a global economy, and it's fundamentally worse.
That mortgage crisis we're having isn't just because stupid little people were taking out loans that only made sense if the housing bubble continued, but because one particular deadbeat borrowed a trillion or so dollars with no plan for being able to pay it back, and instead of spending it on houses that you can at least repossess, he gambled it all on a big oil deal in the Iraqi desert.
Gramm in particular should understand that - you may remember the Gramm-Rudman plan that curbed the worst excesses of the Reaganomics-era spending growth. McCain may be saying he wants to cut spending, but he has no real plan for cutting non-military spending, and no desire at all to cut military spending, and it's Voodoo Economics All Over Again. If Obama pays for his spending by raising taxes, people will at least see it while it's happening and may be willing to do something about it.
Meritocracy is RACISM!!?!??!!?
That is a BIT of a stretch. Rather like trying to stretch your lower lip TO AND AROUND MARS.
Giving the job to the person best suited for the job is the only way things work, otherwise we get the glorious disaster of a mess we have today called the United States Federal Government, the pigment of one's skill SHOULDN'T even enter into the picture.
And complete with a inference to Adolf Hitler.
Go figure. I don't think I will waste anymore words on bad rhetoric.
And regardless what the canidates seem to want us to believe neither one is going to fix the problem, THEY ARE A PART OF THE PROBLEM.
Both of them are trying to get elected on platforms that they will fix the problems THAT THEY THEMSELVES HELPED CREATE!Republican or democrat they are pretty much the same ivory tower dwelling idiotic beasts with differing rhetoric and groups to demonize in shoddy half baked attempts to hide their own ineptitude. Name for me a single career pollitician, that is NOT VERY well to do, that has ANY idea what it's like at Joe Blow Working Guy's level of things? They have miss run this country INTO THE GROUND. The only question is when we will wake up and wise up to the fact that our ineffectual TRAINWRECK of a government IS KILLING US. I hope for our children's sake before it's too late.
It's enough to make one want to move to Pluto...............
Mr. Vietor either is ignorant of basic logic or is attempting to deceive. Or both.
I am willing to bet that Phil Gramm has a far better understanding of economics than 95% of the American population and 100% of the Democratic party voters. he taught economics at Texas A&M for more than 10 years.
Insert the name "Brack Obama" and "the democrats" for McCain for "Sarah Palin" and it is still true:
The Sarah Palin debacle is that John McCain picked Sarah Palin, a nobody with no real experience...
Obama is a nobody with no experience, and there is no one who can say "I was there with Obama 10 years ago ..."
Unlike McCain and Palin who have people who can actually vouch for them. Obama doesn't want us to know who he spent time with. i.e. Bill the mad bomber, Jeramiah (sp?) the racist, the list probably goes on and on. But no one steps forward. Why not? Because that would not help him in his quest for a socialist government.
Phil hit the nail squarely on the head. I've never met a liberal that had one ounce of economic literacy. The liberal mentality caused the mortgage and borrowing meltdown. It lead to the attitudes of government assistance in all aspect of life and only look at NOLA in 2005 as the example. people too stupid to get off their asses and leave NOLA because they expected that government would somehow stop the hurricanes..
Palin in my view is a woman of real american values, who see if you want to get ahead in the world, you have to take the bull by the balls.
Go Sarah.. I look forward to the day she assumes the office.
Phil Graham is absolutely correct. If anyone had any economic sense, they wouldn't be voting for Obama. 75% of new jobs are created by small business owners. So who does Obama want to tax - why small business owners. And their response to confiscatory taxes - shut down or scale back meaning less jobs.
Obama's policies are not meant to make economic sense - his policies are meant to punish acheivers so the base of his party - those who wait for the governemnt to take care of them will feel vindicated. he is using wealth envy to buy votes.
Businesses don't pay taxes. You increase corporate tax rates, they pass that right along to you in the form of higher prices. Just like fuel costs are being passed right along to you.
One might not be able to predict how any given stimuli will exactly affect the economy, but its certainly reasonable to predict that increasing corporate tax rates, which is increasing prices to consumers, is exactly the wrong thing to do when the economy is slow and you are trying to encourage consumer confidence and spending.
Obama's taxes are not just aimed at corporations; he's aiming at the individuals that own small businesses.
He also tried to play on the ignorance of his base the other day when he said he would give capital gains tax breaks to businesses to create jobs. As a small business owner, I can tell you, businesses don't pay much capital gains taxes. But again, the economic ignorance of his base is what he depends on.
The Neo-Con version of economic security is causing this country's middle class to disappear, and futhering the gap between rich and poor.
If you want a oil exec's wife in the White House vite for McCain/Palin.
If you want to see that all Americans can visit a doctor when they're sick and if you want to see America become a leader in future enviromentally sound industries, that can't be outsourced... .Vote OBAMA/BIDEN !!!
:)
Not to mention that McCain supports an immoral war that is causing the deaths of 100's of thousands of people abroad.
How can any McCain/Iraqi War supporter sleep at night?
First of all, you suggest that Gramm meant that if you don't attend the republican convention, you are economically illiterate. But that's not what he said. Not at all. What he said was that if you DO attend, it's obvious that you AREN'T economically illiterate.
Only a moron couldn't see your political hackery.
There was no insult to the american public, and Gramm was CORRECT when he said that most americans are whiners. Most American's believe that when Obama lays down the heaviest tax increases on small and large businesses, it won't effect their lives. They are wrong. When Obama raises taxes on companies, be they small or large, it leaves less money for those companies to pay wages and create jobs. There will be massive layoffs and people will be forced to take paycuts. Not to mention the fact that prices on goods and services will increase, further weakening the economic picture and driving this nation into the biggest recession since the Carter era.
Yeah, Obama won't raise taxes on the bulk of the American people. He'll just raise taxes on businesses. To quote the honorable Senator Fred Thompson:
"So unless you buy something from a "business", like groceries or clothes or gasoline ... or unless you get a paycheck from a big or a small "business", don't worry ... it's not going to affect you.
They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the "other" side of the bucket! That's their idea of tax reform."
Yeah. Suck it, dogfood. The world doesn't need another Obama worshipper spreading lies and fabricating news. Every time I read your crap blog, I laugh a little because of how sadly partisan and ignorant it is....
You continue to prove me right.
As long as you laugh, I'm happy.
Sounds like Simon Scuddamore is the illiterate one. "If you are here, you are B" does not imply "If you are not here, you are not B". I think you are just proving his point.
B. Hussain Obama does have an economic plan. And it's been tried, tested, and proven. In 1998 Democrats won all the statewide offices in California, and Gov Gray Davis implement the exact same economic plan as Obama's. He raised taxes on those evil rich (small business owners), which wiped out thousands of jobs. He raised taxes on companies which raised prices, and drove companies out of state by the hundreds. He ruined the credit rating of the state, and destroyed the economy, but he did make government bigger, until they couldn't pay their bills. Obama promises much of the same!
Hey Obama Supporters...if Gramm is wrong, please enlighten me as to how Obama's tax policies will help our economy? Please I need to be informed.
Everyone wake the fuck up. Just wake the fuck up. WAKE THE FUCK UP. vote for whoever you want but ignorant comments and opinion deface America. I have read stupid shit from both sides but nearly everyone of you have your eyes wide shut.
While we're talking about ignorant, I'd rather vote for someone who is successful enough that he can't remember how many homes he has than someone non-american enough to forget than we have 50 states instead of 57 - the number of arab states in the united nations!!!!
Enjoy the traffic douchebag, you're lucky that the Dem's are only economically illiterate....
Obama said 57 states, with 1 left to go and that he couldn't go to Hawaii or Alaska. He probably meant to say 47 states, and then including the 3 he hadn't been to it would be 50. everyone has a slip of the tongue at some point.
Economic illiteracy seems to be prevailent among the cared for by the dems classes.
The stealing class as I call them give government the power by proxy to steal at the threat of force.. Obama's expansionistic plans would cripple our economy for decades.
Mind you the RNC haven't been playing hardball with it lately and truthfully the 2006 election was more about telling the RNC to get busy being conservatives and quit playing liberal.
Economic illiteracy seems to be prevailent among the cared for by the dems classes.
The stealing class as I call them give government the power by proxy to steal at the threat of force.. Obama's expansionistic plans would cripple our economy for decades.
Mind you the RNC haven't been playing hardball with it lately and truthfully the 2006 election was more about telling the RNC to get busy being conservatives and quit playing liberal.
Dr Gramm, is correct in all respects and tells it like it is. The problem with people in this country today is they will not take responsibility for their actions and bad decisions. They expect the nanny government to step in and take care of their problems. They make bad life choices and financial choices and then blame in on everyone except themselves. The Congress of the U.S. has spent like fools over the last 16 years, who is responsible, the voters. They keep re-electing people like, Harry Reid, Murtha, Pelosi, Stevens. Byrd and other Pork Kings. The so called most qualified democrat for the Presidency, the “One” has some seem to refer to him has been in Congress less that 4 year and request almost 1 Billion, this is with a “B” in earmarks and I need to note that one million of this pork went to Obama’s wife’s employer, I guess to pay for here $300.000 a year job. And for the rather dim individual that made the comment about Irag spending, that is equal to less that 4% of the defense spending for this country. You want to fix the fiscal problems in this country end the massive waste and government pork that is doled out by corrupt politicians. Funny, McCain had no history of earmarks..
Liberals tend to be nasty, jealous, vindictive, petty and mean (just read the posts of the more prominent liberal websites about conservatives).
Now we can also add whiny.
In the future we can probably expect new behaviors to emerge as the election night draws closer.
Whiney?
Who has been wining baout the "liberal Media" all day and all night the RNC?
Rebublicans are the kid in third grade who punches you in the arm, and when you punch back, they run crying to the teacher.
Children are fair game when they reflect your policy positions, and how your ignorant public policy affects real people, and real families. This daughter, and her child will not want for anything; ever. Now, teach abstinance only in East LA, Louisiana, or anywhere else the median income is less than $50K and now you've got unmarried pregnant teenagers who WILL want; for housing, medical care, childcare, employment, education, opportunity, and a plethora of other things that Sara Palin's daughter and grandchild will take for granted. The fact is, Palin's position on sex education is wrong, and her daughter's unplanned pregnancy brings that fact sharply into focus. Both sides need to look at FACTS. Developing domestic oil production is good. Nuclear power is good. Avoiding trips to the ER is good. Higher gas mileage standards are good. Education is good. Protecting the Constitution is good. Your faith has nothing to do with good government; be it liberal or conservative.
This blog should be named Top Shelf Dog Squeeze. Phil Gramm is an economist. He taught economics at Texas A&M. He knows of what he speaks on this one. Anyone with a basic understanding of economics knows that when you tax something you get less of it. Excessive taxation punishes achievement and success. ExxonMobil's 7.2% profit margin is not going to be enough to pay for all of Obama's Economic Plans. The rest of the money will come from YOU! Obama's plans can be summed up as robbing from the useful and giving to the useless, after of course, taking a healthy portion for government to make things "fair". I hope McCain-Palin can get more votes from thinking Americans to counter the DumbMasses voting for Obama.
Enos is a moron. You can tell a moron because the first word of his post is Neo-Con. I'm not a moron. I can visit any doctor I choose and I don't need my fellow Americans to pay for it. Any doctor I ever went to had a MasterCard or Visa sticker on their door or a sign at the receptionist's desk that told me they accept credit cards. Enos is economically illiterate when he thinks jobs in future environmentally sound industries (whatever the hell that means) won't be out sourced. Jobs are outsourced primarily due to the burdensome income tax code in this country. Replacing the income tax code with the Fair Tax would make the US the world's greatest tax haven and other countries would be out sourcing their jobs over here. Hell, they'd be building their factories here. The Fair Tax has little chance of passage in an Obama Administration because it would take too much power away from big government types like him and Biden. If these clowns couldn't manipulate the tax code to buy votes from the DumbMasses how could they ever get elected?
Duke Nukem you must be oblivious. In a time with a mortgage crisis hitting the United States, the collapse of the lending crisis is not far behind. To clarify much of people's debt has been moved over to mortgages over the last ten years as it was easy (hence mortgage crisis now) to do this and companies as well as banks were happy to give you a loan on your house. However now your looking at that not being a possibility anymore.
Add the fact that currently the lending industry leaves the citizens of the once so strong United States with a 6 TRILLION dollar debt, a little more than i can cover with my visa or mastercard sorry, your little solution of oh hey i don't need anyone elses help to get to my doctor then your again badly mistaken. How does your gas get to your car? Who fixes your car? Who pays you for your work? Who pays them to pay you...
Sorry the whole "I am okay and what happens to others" just does not work in this world we live in.
In reality i think either camp reps or dems will have a seriously hard job on their hand... However I'd rather have a team that has the citizens and public in mind rather than oil companies, or manufacturers for military equipment. I am not trying to say that palin/mccain don't have the citizens in mind but it seems to me, they don't sit in the front line there... Just think about Palins "Bridge to nowhere debacle" Nationwide news because she as well as others in her city council wanted to build an over $300 million dollar bridge to a small island with a community of 50 homes ... Common sense does not seem her strong suite, We NEED common sense.
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