Senator McCain Explains Away Phil Gramm

Last Thursday, former Senator Phil Gramm, currently chief economic adviser for the McCain campaign, called America a "nation of whiners" whose economic complaints are mostly "mental." I'm sure most Americans were relieved to know that their economic concerns and hardships could be relieved by a pep talk. Senator McCain had immediate collateral damage to with and said, “Phil Gramm does not speak for me. I strongly disagree." Senator McCain went on to state, "that people who've lost their jobs or are struggling to pay bills aren't suffering from a " 'mental recession.' America is in great difficulty, and we are experiencing economic challenges."

Given that Phil Gramm is a vice president for UBS, and is largely responsible for the so-called "Enron Loophole" along with his wife Wendy Gramm, it is unlikely that he is suffering any economic hardships at this time. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The photo presented with the courtesy of Politgal1 (http://politigal1.blogspot.com/) is probably worth several thousand words.

It's a shame that Senator McCain has a chief adviser who is so out of touch and contemptuous of the vast majority of Americans. If you are not an affluent American and have concerns about: health insurance; your ability to make your mortgage payment; whether you can pay for the gasoline to drive to work and take your children to school; the increasing price of food; and a host of other concerns, can you really afford to vote for a man whose chief economic adviser is so insensitive to your concerns and issues.

Senator McCain 100% Lobbyist Free

The headline of this post, which is painfully ironic, is about a United States senator who for some time presented himself as a reformer, and stated that he fought for greater transparency regarding the official activities of lobbyists and the disclosure of how candidates and campaigns are funded. An article in ABC news on January 29, 2008, stated "McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates, according to the latest finding from government watchdog group Public Citizen."

The story only gets worse from here. In widely publicized recent news the American public has learned about the so-called "Enron loophole" which exempts energy speculators who make trades electronically from US regulation. Recent testimony before a Senate committee revealed that unregulated energy speculation accounts for between 20% to 25% of the jump in oil prices.

Wendy Gramm, wife of former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, joined Enron's board after chairing the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, where she issued regulations that legalized the type of electricity trading that helped Enron make millions in illegal profits. In 2000, then Senator, Gramm helped pass legislation which made the Enron Loophole permanent. Phil Gramm is now a lobbyist for UBS, a Swiss banking Corporation. Mr. Gramm is Senator McCain's campaign chair and economic adviser.

The list of lobbyists working for Senator McCain is quite lengthy. One egregious example cited by the Daily News are "John Green, the senator's chief liaison to Congress, and Wayne Berman, his national finance co-chairman, billed more than $720,000 in lobbying fees from 2005 through last year to Ameriquest Mortgage through their lobbying firm." With lobbyists working for Senator McCain in senior positions who are tied to the run-up in energy prices and the housing crisis how can Senator McCain make objective decisions regarding two of the most critical issues facing this country.