Wadded Piece of Economic Slime
Personally, I think Phil Gramm is just trying to ease his soul by telling himself that all those people he stole money from with his economic schemes really aren’t suffering.
Phil says that Obama is going to win because poor people have it so good.
In 1980 and 1992, only 3% of the American labor force drew disability benefits from the government. Today it is 6%. The number of workers qualifying for disability since the recession ended in 2009 has grown twice as fast as private employment.
How would Presidents Jimmy Carter or George H.W. Bush have fared on their Election Day if 40% of the Americans who were unemployed had instead qualified for disability benefits? How would voters have reacted in 1980 or 1992 if food-stamp benefits had grown by 65% instead of an average of less than 25% during the first four years of their administrations?
During the past four years, the Obama administration’s aggressive promotion of the food-stamp program has increased the number of recipients by 18.5 million. Do these people feel the same level of discontent about economic conditions as the rest of the voting population?
Why is this man still walking around? He’s a damn crook.
Phil Gramm: already in the handbasket
Let me explain something to Phil Gramm: People are on food stamps because you screwed up the economy.
Phil Gramm is the major source of the economic tragedy this country has suffered, and now he’s whining because it’s Easy Street to be on Disability? Phil Gramm could not live on Disability for a month. Hell, Phil Gramm has shoes that cost more than a year’s worth of Disability.
You’re going to hell, Phil Gramm. And you can whine there, too.
It’s interesting that those who are so vocal about Food Stamps seem to think that everyone gets a LOT of money. I imagine most of the 18.5 million get very little, but are still grateful for it. My own $30 a month makes a huge difference. Larger amounts go to families with children to feed or disabled who have no other income. And it all supports local markets. And none of it covers paper goods, prepared food or cleaning stuff.Or probably Phils larger expense of alcohol.
1In his first election to congress he won by only 113 votes over Chet Edwards.
2Think how different things might have been if he had lost.
Yes, Phil Gramm’s American Dream. 4 years ago our homes lost half their value, or worse, your mortgage company booted you out onto the street. Your 401k also lost half it’s value. People lost jobs. But now, they’re all sittin’ on Easy Street (because they can’t afford to live in a house on Easy Street) cashing in their food stamps and feeling no pain.
3I think he sold his soul years ago. I don’t believe there is any redemption for people like this.
4That man is despicable … what a jerk!!
5Phil Gramm is working for the Swiss bank UBS as a Vice Chairman of the UBS Investment Bank division. Well la-de-da! This is the same UBS that was involved in the Libor scandal. Apparently Phil is as intent on pillaging and ravaging the European economy for the sake of the European 1%’ers (and those Americans who have Swiss bank accounts), as he did for the U.S. economy. Phil is a walking global financial Attila the Hun–he leaves financial ruin and devastation in his wake wherever he goes, except of course for his friends and cohorts.
6I tend to look at the social safety net as one more give away to the corporations and business that wants low waged labor. If the were forced to pay a livable wage, we wouldn’t need to supplement the working poor. It would also lift all boats by the pent up demand it would unleash from poor people who live from hand to mouth. It used to be that gains in productivity was shared by the workers. Now it seems to be reserved for the top.
7Sharon, I think the space left behind where Phil’s soul would be got filled with poopie del toro.
8Juanita Jean, please don’t publish that picture of Gramm again. I swear just looking at it reduced my IQ by at least ten points. Now I need to work some difficult puzzles in an attempt to get them back.
9He’ll go to hell? I’ve said this many times to anyone who will listen. These GOPers are not Christians. Never were, never have been. Religion is just a tool for these jackasses.
10Juanita Jean I think you’re being too nice calling Gramm slime. I’m pretty sure even slime has its uses in the cycle of life. Now toxic waste…, I leave it to the scientific community to correct me if so needed.
11Gramm seems to be pulling a bait-and-switch. He starts by talking about disability. Workers pay into the disability fund as a form of insurance if they become unable to work. Next he switches to food stamps, which is a different subject entirely. As someone pointed out, more people are on food stamps because of the Wall-Street-engineered crash that wrecked our economy. Gramms doesn’t know the economy from a hole in the ground, which is about where we’ll be living if we listen to him.
12…”Do these people feel the same level of discontent about economic conditions as the rest of the voting population?”
More Mr. Gramm, much more. More than you can comprehend.
13Phil Gramm will one day find himself in the 2nd Round of the Ninth Circle of Dante’s Inferno! Nah, that’s too good for him…Phil Gramm is pure evil…
14I would dance on his grave. Phil, I feel like dancin’; do the planet a favor …..
15I remember, back in the 60s, that you had to PAY for food stamps. Granted, you got X dollars worth of food stamps for much less; the problem was that some very hungry people didn’t have the money to pay for the stamps. That’s when they became free for those who qualified. My local Safeway has always had many people using food stamps and I long ago got over looking at what they bought. The local farmers’ market also took WIC coupons and some other subsidized things. But, frankly, if you were buying at farmers’ market prices, you were wasting a lot of your allowance. Farmers’ markets around here are for people with a lot of money to spend on food.
16Phil should get out of the wagon and push. With any luck the wagon will run over him.
17Unfortunaltely I think that is true–most of the farmer’s markets I have been to tend to attract the fairly wealthy people who can pay relatively prices for produce that they think is benefiting the local people–except in some times it is shipped in from other areas )ie: mexico, etc.) ) and the people selling stuff at these “markets” often are no better then the local Safeway!!
So there!!
Not that I have anything against the local Safeway==and living in S. Arizona, I spend most of my grocery money at the local 99 cent store which gets most of it’s produce from (gasp!) Mexico. And the interesting part is, when in the parking lot, a good many of the car licencses are Sonora which means it is worth a trip to come up here and buy stuff and then bring it back over the border.
Which means to my uninformed brain, that it might be a good idea to have a good trade relationshiop with Mexico as far as produce, etc. and maybe other things.]
18Sorry, I apologize for the spelling and bad. Grammar. Too many glasses of wine before dinner.
19Off topic, but just got home turned on pbs senatorial debate.
What a sad setup … 1st I’ve seen of the D candidate.
It should be available for reviewing from their statement of my last 10 mins of viewing.
I’d of thought i was watching a ‘fair & balanced’ questionering of the candidates.
20@barboh: I can relate. Since we eat mostly vegetarian at home, I don’t buy meat at supermarkets. On special occasions, when I feeding my friends for the Holidays, or whatever, I buy my meat at farmers’ markets that has been certified “organic.” And, believe me that I ask a whole lotta questions. I buy all the eggs we eat at farmers’ markets and the difference between those and the ones from the supermarket are dramatic. I only buy eggs at the Safeway at Easter–when I dye them and then throw them out. It costs a whole lot more, but I know where those $0.99/lb. chickens come from on sale at the Safeway and there is no way I’m gonna support that.
The problem is that in poor neighbors there AREN’T any supermarkets–just a whole bunch of fast-food joints–so getting fresh food to prepare, of any kind, has long been a problem. Plus, in most inner-cities folks don’t own cars (like I don’t). It’s just that in my neighborhood, I have a many places to shop while using the ol’ Ankle Express because I don’t live in a poor neighborhood. But, I also have access to extensive public transportation and use it frequently. I don’t have any answers to this problem, but I know a lot of people are working on it. The number of community gardens has absolutely exploded in this town–to the point that lotteries have to held for the right to grow in particular plots.
21So, is Gramm acknowledging that Obama is going to win?
22Gramm is just another old white blob of a man who can’t stand to see a black man on Air Force One unless he is cleaning the johns! But take heart! The Salt Lake City Tribune, the premier newspaper in Utah which is one of the reddest states in the union, has just endorsed Obama and blasted Mitt! For little old me, this is rocket fuel!
23Phil Gramm is the genius behind the Credit Default Swap, which he said would be just like insurance except it would be unregulated by law. Phil Gramm is the sole cause of the 2008-2009 economic crisis. He should be shunned at every opportunity. May he die of loneliness in the midst of a crowd.
24The Salt Lake City Tribune endorsement is well worth the read: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/55019844-82/endorsement-romney-obama-president.html.csp#disqus_thread
Beautifully done!
25Food stamps are part of the Farm Bill….. which Gramm sanctimoniously protected for small Texas farmers everytime he ran for re-election…. but we all know the Farm Bill is a cash cow for corporate megafarmers who never get their hands dirty and can’t tell peas from beans. Kinda like Phil Gramm. To call him a swine is demeaning to pigs and family farms who raise pigs.
26Enron anyone? Wendy pocketed a cool 2 mil, hubby got plenty o’ campaign dough and she calls the people who were screwed “whiners”.
27http://www.salon.com/2004/01/28/wendy_gramm/
I was ecstatic to find this post. I had despaired that no one but me remembers who set the ball rolling on all this pain and financial mess. Of course, one could also make the point that if our congress read bills before signing them into law some of these sneaky, under-the-radar additions might be stopped before becoming law.
I’m discouraged that most of the American public doesn’t seem to remember anything beyond the length of time a twitter exists.
It boggles my mind that half the voting public seems to have forgotten that the previous two Republican terms brought us this debacle, and that for the entire Obama presidency the same people have sabotaged our recovery to get back into power. I’ve been voting for 57 years and this is the worst election yet.
As a MA resident during the Romney Governorship, I
28gag at the thought of him as President.
Phil Gramm and his separated at hatching twin, Mitch McConnell should slither back into that swamp where there are both turtles and muck.
29Hey, hey, hey, what did turtles ever do to deserve that? Enough of them are on the endangered species list. Putting Gramm and McConnell in their habitat would be equivalent to flooding it with raw sewage.
30JJ’s peeps might be interested to know that my late Father-in-Law was a Wall Street lawyer who despised Phil Gramm (which he pronounced as Grom) and was a Liberal Democrat who never, ever complained about paying taxes. In fact, he avoided all the tactics which would have lessened his estate taxes. Which explains why, when he died in 2001, his estate dropped about 40%, along with the stock market. In fact, at the time of his death, he owned about 60K worth of the Enron stock.
There are such things as proud Democrats and we have absolutely nothing to be ashamed about. How the Rethugs sleep at night, I can’t explain. Nor can I explain how Phil can look in the mirror every morning and shave that ugly face without puking.
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