McCain's Top Economic Advisor: Americans Are Whiners

A couple days ago McCain's top economic advisor (and likely pick for Treasury Secretary) former Sen. Phil Gramm said:

"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."

"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. ...

"Misery sells newspapers," Mr. Gramm said. "Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day."

Wow. Really? McCain's top economic advisor is telling Americans that all of the problems they are facing are psychological?? It's all in their heads? They aren't actually having trouble making ends meet, it's a figment of their imaginations? They aren't really paying over $4/gal for gas while oil companies make record profits? And the record number of home foreclosures is just imaginary! Yeah, it's just like The Matrix, you think your home is about to be taken away, but that's just because you believe that's what is happening (probably because the bank told you), but if you really just realized that it was all fake and in your head, the foreclosure process would just stop, and gas would cost $1.50/gal again, and we wouldn't be losing millions of jobs, and you could fly, and know kung-fu, and you could stop bullets with your mind! Woah. Isn't life wonderful when reality is just all in your head?? It must be great to live in a fantasy world where Americans aren't saving the lowest amount since the Great Depression (next to nothing). It's all in our heads! But hell, don't take my word for it, or the economic data, or all the Americans that are just trying to hang on, let's hear it from an expert:

The United States has already slipped into a deep recession that could be the most serious since World War II, said Martin Feldstein, president of the Cambridge group that is considered the official word on economic cycles.

"The situation is bad, it's getting worse, and the risks are that the situation could be very bad," Feldstein said in a speech yesterday at a financial industry conference in Boca Raton, Fla.

Feldstein, president of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a professor of economics at Harvard University, said the chief causes of the shrinking economy are sinking housing prices, months of job losses, and turmoil in the financial markets.

Yeah, and that was back in March. The DNC responds:

What John McCain, George Bush and Phil Gramm just don't understand is that the American people aren't whining about the state of the economy, they are suffering under the weight of it -- the weight of eight years of Bush-enomics that John McCain and Phil Gramm have vowed to continue. How dare John McCain and his advisers so callously dismiss the challenges the American people face. No wonder voters feel John McCain is out of touch, he and his campaign don't even understand the everyday issues Americans are dealing with.

And Obama:



And this from his campaign:

One of Senator McCain's top economic advisors may think that when people are struggling with lost jobs, stagnant wages, and the rising costs of everything from gas to groceries, it's merely a 'mental recession'. And Senator McCain may think it's sufficient to offer energy proposals that he admits will have mainly 'psychological' benefits. But the American people know that our economic problems aren't just in their heads. They don't need psychological relief - they need real relief - and that's what Barack Obama will provide as President.

And McCain's response:

Phil Gramm's comments are not representative of John McCain's views. John McCain travels the country every day talking to Americans who are hurting, feeling pain at the pump and worrying about how they'll pay their mortgage. That's why he has a realistic plan to deliver immediate relief at the gas pump, grow our economy and put Americans back to work.

And that response is weird, because earlier McCain's own campaign said that Gramm was speaking on behalf of McCain on his economic policy:

The McCain campaign is working hard to distance itself from statements made by economic adviser Phil Gramm describing the current economic downturn as a "mental recession" and saying America had "sort of become a nation of whiners."

But in an initial statement published by Politico and then, seemingly, removed from its site, a McCain campaign aide actually stood by Gramm's remarks, saying the interview as a whole was merely meant as a preview of the Senator's economic agenda.

"Mr. Gramm was simply saying that we are laying out the economic plan this week," the piece quoted a "McCain official" as saying. "The plan is comprehensive, providing immediate near-term relief for Americans hurting today as well as longer-term solutions to get our economy back on track, secure our energy future and deliver jobs, prosperity and opportunity for the next generation. We're laying out that plan this week with an emphasis on the critical importance of job creation, and it's been a great success so far."

Only after the fallout from Gramm's statement did the McCain campaign fully backtrack.

And then the Washington Post:

Speaking today from New York, where he was meeting with the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board on McCain's economic policies, Gramm said the nation's economy was initially thought to have grown by an anemic 0.6 percent in the first three months of the year.

What is funny is that McCain can even claim that the views of his top economic advisor, who drafts McCain's economic policy (in addition to Bush of course), and speaks for McCain on the economy, wasn't providing McCain's view of the status of the economy. In fact....:



And that's the thing that the media doesn't seem to understand (or want to report), that these comments are directly in line with not only McCain's views, but the views of all conservatives. It is shocking how out of touch Republicans are with the American people, and how indifferent they are to their suffering. But how is this a surprise coming from the party that through administration after administration cuts taxes for the rich, while cutting social services for the not-rich. Almost every single choice they make can be broken down to "Does this help the rich while screwing the poor?", and if the answer is yes, you can be sure that the Republicans support it. And the sad thing is, I'm not even exaggerating. The problem is we never have a honest discussion of the policies and ideology of the Republican Party, even after it has devastated our economy and the lives of so many Americans for the last 8 years, and then decades before that. Don't expect that discussion to come from the media, it is owned by rich Republicans.

And that's the sick part about the Gramm thing, the media briefly picked it up, but not because his insistence that the recession was all in our heads, but because he inartfully called Americans "a nation of whiners". That is why it got a little bit of coverage, not because of how messed up and out of touch Gramm, McCain, Bush and all Republicans are, or how horrible their policies have been for this country.

Why can't we have that candid discussion in this country? If people woke up and just had some basic understanding of politics, current events, and the economy the Republican Party would be dust, because a party with such greedy and worthless (for everyone but the rich) policies and priorities could not survive if it weren't for extreme ignorance and apathy, which are the only renewable resources we have a limitless supply of in this country.

Update: I should also note that the "nation of whiners" comment was a thousand times more offensive than Obama's "bitter" comment, which was actually the exact opposite, as Obama was actually acknowledging that people are hurting financially, and are sick of being left behind by Washington year after year. Obama caught hell for weeks over those empathetic comments. Yet McCain's repeated comments showing how completely, callously out of touch he is with the plight of everyday Americans results in next to no coverage.