This has nothing to do with the presidential race but I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t celebrate today’s announcement that Volkswagen is building a plant in Chattanooga, bringing 2000 jobs. Thanks, VW!
& we should say here that all politicians of both parties who helped make this possible deserve our gratitude.
Our assignment manager Melydia is convinced that something’s afoot with the stars (”Jupiter is now opposite the Earth”) & causing some general crazies to come out; current evidence that makes this case:
1. We’ve had a gentleman call the newsroom repeatedly telling us about a premonition he’s had that aliens are about to arrive & achieve world peace & reduce our dependency on foreign oil,
2. Our newsroom has received approximately 136,372 e-mail messages from an apparent organized campaign to “bring the makers of Red Bull to justice” (please - don’t ask),
3. Jesse Jackson making some crazy remark that I won’t reprint here about Barack Obama that’s (unfortunately) dominating the current news cycle, &
4. The topic of this post, Phil Gramm, former advisor to John McCain, who has said that America is not in an actual recession but rather a “mental recession.” Quote:
“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.
Mr. Gramm said the constant drubbing of the media on the economy’s problems is one reason people have lost confidence. Various surveys show that consumer confidence has fallen precipitously this year to the lowest levels in two to three decades, with most analysts attributing that to record high gasoline prices over $4 a gallon and big drops in the value of homes, which are consumers’ biggest assets.
“Misery sells newspapers,” Mr. Gramm said. “Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day.”
Let’s forget completely for the moment whether or not Gramm has a point (for the record, I think he’s wrong) so we can make this one: Americans of all political stripes are not happy with how gas prices are eating into their pocketbooks these days, & none of them likes to be told by anyone that they’re “just a bunch of whiners.”
It’s only natural that the Obama campaign took advantage of this low-hanging fruit:
“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,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
& so, as you can imagine, just as Barack is doing so with Jesse, John McCain took pains to distance himself from Gramm’s remarks:
“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.”
One last point on Gramm - it’s pretty amazing to me that the McCain camp kept Gramm on board with the campaign as long as he did. When he was a Senator in the late 90s, he was instrumental in deregulating the housing industry, which helped contribute to the housing crisis we’re in today.
What do you think? Are these tough economic times all in your head? Let us know by posting a comment!
Say this for the Tennessee GOP: they are definitely setting a goal of being one of the most visible state party organizations in the country in this presidential race. Check out our past coverage of their efforts here & here (the latter link forced Obama to say on Good Morning America “lay off my wife,” which we’ve said is something with which we don’t necessarily agree)
The above ad goes after Barack Obama’s energy plan, using a version of the “Popcorn” song we all hear in Tennessee lottery commercials these days & a cheesy 1970s font, presumably to take viewers on the wayback machine to the days of the (1st?) energy crisis.
The spot cannily makes use of Jay Leno (though we’d have recommended playing it just once) & Obama’s now-familiar chant “Yes We Can” to make its point.
But I’m concerned about one part of the clip, at 1:18, that seems to perpetuate an urban legend oft-repeated in the last month, that “China is drilling off the coast of Cuba.”
So I replied to their e-mail (subject line: “Tennessee GOP Proudly Releases New Web Video on Obama”):
This is part of a speech McCain gave yesterday calling for more domestic oil drilling. I apologize for the video & sound quality - & consider this a desperate plea to the McCain website team to please get your act together & start posting more recent/current clips on your YouTube channel page.
Read McCain’s entire speech here.
On Wednesday, President Bush echoed McCain’s call for more offshore drilling. Read his full remarks here.
Obama opposes the expansion of offshore drilling, as outlined in a statement you can read here.
UPDATE/3:49pm:
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - Sen. John McCain is calling for construction of 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030 and pledging $2 billion a year in federal funds to make clean coal a reality. He says the measures will reduce American dependence on foreign oil.
In a second straight day of campaigning devoted to energy, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting also said Wednesday that the only time Democratic rival Barack Obama voted for a tax cut was for a “break for the oil companies.”
During an appearance in Springfield, Mo., McCain said the 104 nuclear reactors currently in operation produce about 20 percent of the nation’s annual electricity needs. He said they spare the atmosphere the equivalent of nearly all auto emissions in America.
What do you think? Post a comment!
There’s an interesting study out today by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center comparing Obama & McCain’s tax plans.
“Money” quote:
“Families making between $37,595 and $66,354 of annual income with Obama would get an average tax cut of $1,042 per family while McCain’s tax cut for this group would be $319.”
Here’s what Obama had to say about oil prices recently on MSNBC. He says he “would have preferred a gradual adjustment” to higher gas prices:
In response, the McCain camp issued this memo saying a vote for Obama is a vote for higher taxes.
What do you think?
Today in the nation’s capital, John McCain attacks Obama’s tax plan at the U.S. Small Business Summit. Read the text of the speech here.
Here’s an excerpt:
Yesterday in Raleigh, Barack Obama says the economic policies of John McCain are the same as President Bush’s:
What do you think?
There are a few individuals out there who focus not on the policies of a particular candidate, but rather what a win for that candidate would mean to their portfolio.
A recent article in New York Magazine has advice for these folks:
“Yes, we’ve got a Democrat who is skeptical of the market’s ability to do right by the people, and a Republican who puts his faith in markets, but the knee-jerk Democrat-means-sell/Republican-means-buy conclusion won’t be any more right than it was the last two times. That doesn’t mean there’s not money to be made on the election. The secret is to identify the individual sectors and stocks that will rise and fall under each hypothetical administration. This time, we’ve got four areas where we know for certain there’s a wide disparity between the candidates’ positions….”
To read the rest of this article, click here.
Bob Corker, whom we’ve seen pumping his own gas at the nearest station to our home, by the way, has rightly slammed this silly gas tax holiday proposal.
From Nashville’s “City Paper” Blog:
“I think all of us realize this is solely pandering,” Corker said of suspending the gas tax over the summer.
Corker pointed out that both Clinton and McCain are in favor of so-called “cap and trade” legislation coming up for debate next month in the Senate — legislation that Corker says, “actually is a tax on gasoline.”
“So again, if that’s not pandering, I don’t know what it is,” Corker told reporters. “It’s very disappointing to see. I think as a country we need to have a real energy policy that ensures that Americans are going to be able to have access to petroleum at fair prices over time and that we’re not transferring this huge amount of wealth overseas that we’re doing every day.”
When asked if he was disappointed in McCain’s proposing of the idea, Corker said: “I watch what happens during election years, and nothing surprises me.”
Good call, Senator.
Clinton lambasts Obama for not supporting a suspension of the gas tax.
Obama responds with an ad of his own:
Both the New York Times & the Washington Post have editorials calling out this pandering flim-flammery for what it is.
The two candidates pictured above both have recently called for a suspension of the federal gas tax between this Memorial Day & Labor Day, & have both blasted Barack Obama, who opposes it.
No one likes high gas prices. But pandering to the base, immediate needs of the voters represents a “quick fix” style solution designed to get votes rather than address a long-term problem.
Each of the three candidates have promised to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.
Each of these arguments have merits. For starters, each represent a break from the current system which is running on inertia. & look where that’s gotten us.
There are two ways to approach fixing the gas price problem: reducing demand, & increasing supply.
Dropping the federal gas tax for this summer would do neither of these; it would increase demand - presumably because the price would be better - & decrease supply, as more people use gas.
& it really wouldn’t make that much of an impact in your wallet, anyway, as this clip from Good Morning America illustrates:
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times fleshes out that point in his column today.
& lest you think that opposition to the idea sticks with just one ideology, check out the wealth of economists - including a former economic adviser to President Bush - who say it’s a cheap gimmick designed to get votes.
Personally I’m more than happy to pay the tax - provided that tax is going towards figuring out a long-term solution to the problem. I am tired & extremely frustrated at politicians in Washington - of both parties - refusing to look beyond the next week, the next month, the next year, or, most importantly, the next election.
This 2008 presidential campaign, as we’ve said before, is not an easy one. It’s awfully hard. You as a voter have a responsibility to look past your immediate concerns & try to envision how to plan for 20, 30, 50 years down the road. Changing how we view our dependence on foreign oil is just one part of this.
So we urge you to reject any politician’s plan to give you a “quick fix” in the short term while ignoring the long term issues that are at stake for our economic (& literal) survival.
What do you think?
Yesterday spokespeople for the McCain, Clinton & Obama campaign wrote a piece in the Washington Post on how each of their candidates would solve the current economic crisis.
Read more after the jump.
