The Imploding American Economy & John McCain’s Very Own Terrorist In Pinstripes

Phil Gramm called us all a bunch of whiners, and said that the economic collapse facing America is purely psychological. Shaun Mullen (writing at The Moderate Voice) thinks McCain should ditch his economic terrorist if he wants to have a real economic plan. Agreed.

The Imploding American Economy & John McCain’s Very Own Terrorist In Pinstripes

July 14th, 2008 by SHAUN MULLEN, TMV Columnist

Having been chided last week by Phil Gramm as a whiner afflicted by “a mental recession” as one of millions of Americans who are struggling to keep their heads above water while the U.S. is sucked ever deeper into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, it was grimly satisfying to see Henry Paulson standing on the steps of the Treasury Building yesterday afternoon and announcing yet another massive taxpayer bailout, this one for the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage giants.

It was a bittersweet moment to be sure, and one that John McCain and his toxic campaign co-chair and chief economic adviser no doubt fail to appreciate.

Gramm should be thrown out of the McCain campaign plane at 30,000 feet without a parachute if the presumptive Republican nominee wants to make a statement about how presidential he will be when it comes to the biggest campaign issue of all — the economy. This is because Gramm, as a U.S. senator and wheeler-dealer extraordinare, is the man most responsible for the repeal of Depression-era banking regulations that have led to today’s economic turmoil, much of it triggered by the rapacious and arguably criminal actions of Wall Street investment banks.

Sentient Americans long ago became accustomed to the gap between our leaders’ words and reality, so the McCain-Gramm tandem is par for the course, and McCain’s efforts to distance himself from the snarky Texan since his “mental recession” remarks and now the mortgage institution bailout have been laughingly feeble: Gramm is suddenly called “a volunteer” who “does not speak for the candidate” but nevertheless is bound to remain an integral part of the campaign through to November when the Republican hegemony sputters to a dismal end.

Paulson’s actions, necessitated by the flight of private mortgage capital, makes the feds responsible for most mortgages, as well as student loans, at a time when the Iraq war and other politics-over-policy actions, including feel-good stimulus checks, have plunged the U.S. even deeper into debt and ravaged the dollar.

Read the whole article.

Tags: The Imploding American Economy, John McCain, Terrorist In Pinstripes, Phil Gramm, Politics, economics, ethics, whiners, Henry Paulson, mortgage, bailout