Former Sen. Phil Gramm, a top economic adviser to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain [1], referred to the economic slowdown as “a mental recession” and called the United States “a nation of whiners.”
The comments, in an interview with The Washington Times [2], could hurt the campaign’s efforts to convince working-class Americans that McCain feels their pain.
McCain strongly disavowed [3] the comments today , saying Phil Gramm “does not speak for me — I speak for me.”
“So I strongly disagree,” McCain told reporters gathered for a press conference.
Democrats immediately condemned the remarks as “callous” and quickly began working to divert widespread attention to them.
So reported The Politico, last night [4].
Well, let’s get a few things straight, shall we?
1: We’re not in a recession. Welcome to ‘words mean things’. A recession is a period [5] of general economic [6] decline [7]; specifically, a decline in GDP [8] for two or more consecutive quarters [9]. We’ve not reached that point yet. That may or may not happen, but if so, it has not yet. So, use of the word recession is a lie.
2a:Note that the people who have been so calling it are all Democrats.
2b: Note also that this is an election year.
2c: Note that past the cyclical nature of economies, the greatest contibutor to our current economic situation is Democrat policy, as regards mortages, taxes and energy, to name three. Of course they’ll never tell you this.
3: The description of it being a mental recession is quite accurate, given the Democrats have spent most of the last 8 years complaining about how this is the worst economy since Hoover, despite the numbers not supporting the argument. Keep telling a lie like that long enough and the lie becomes it’s own reality. All for the political purpose of the Democrats.
4: McCain is dead wrong to have backed off the Gramm statement, for the reasons listed. And of course McCain made exactly the wrong move by playing into the Democrat party’s hands on this.
Addendum: This post made Real Clear Politics “Best of the Blogs”. [10]Thanks.