McCain's Bitter-gate

By now you may have heard that McCain's top economic adviser, former Senator Phil Gramm, thinks that all of you pathetic "hard-working people" who don't appreciate the value of concentrating money in the hands of the super-rich are just a bunch of whiners.

In an interview with the Washington Times, Phil Gramm, a former Texas senator who is now vice chairman of UBS, the giant Swiss bank, said he expects Mr. McCain to inherit a sluggish economy if he wins the presidency, weighed down above all by the conviction of many Americans that economic conditions are the worst in two or three decades and that America is in decline.

"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.

As S,N notes, this is the "let them eat cake" Antionette-ism that has been at the heart of the Republican Party since the Gilded Age. Their entire project is to view the federal Treasury as a bank holding the money for their wealthy contributors until they decide to dole it out to them. So they construct policies that benefit the top one-half of 1%. When you hear about The Wrecking Crew, this is their objective.

Fantastic misgovernment is not an accident; nor is it the work of a few bad individuals. It is the consequence of triumph by a particular philosophy of government, by a movement that understands the liberal state as a perversion and considers the market the ideal nexus of human society. [...] Its leaders laugh off the idea of the public interest as airy-fairy nonsense; they caution against bringing top-notch talent into government service; they declare war on public workers. [...] The ruination they have wrought has been thorough; it has been a professional job. [...] There is so much money in conservatism these days that Karl Rove rightly boasts, "We can now go to students at Harvard and say, 'There is now a secure retirement plan for Republican operatives.'" [...]

Like Bush and Reagan before him, John McCain is a self-proclaimed outsider, but should he win in November he will merely bring us more of the same: an executive branch fed by, if not actually made up of, lobbyists and other angry, righteous profiteers.

The McCain campaign, already rocked by the candidate calling the Social Security system as a concept a disgrace (and trying to backpedal furiously to little effect), has no idea what to do with this latest example of letting the economic royalist slip show. At first, and let us not forget this, they stood by the remarks.

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."

And Sen. Obama took McCain to task for these comments.

"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," Obama spokesman Bill Burton writes.

I seem to remember a very large scandal played off of one Obama quote at a private fundraiser, about how "bitter" rural voters cling to God and guns. Gee, here we have the top economic adviser to the Republican nominee saying that any American facing the real costs of failed conservative economic policies, struggling to pay for gas or health care or food, trying to keep their job in an era of stagnant wages and rising costs, trying to keep their home in the midst of crisis, is a "whiner." The media might want to look up from their barbecue and cornbread and pay attention. This is a major Kinsley-esque gaffe, which is what happens when someone tells the truth about their objectives. McCain and his fellow travelers don't care about the economic problems of 99% of America.