Continuing the theme of my previous post--the complete ineptitude of the McCain economic team to feel the pain of the average American--here are a few other brilliant quotes by Phil Gramm, McCain's main economic adviser and a self-described "footsoldier in the Reagan revolution":
"We are the only nation in the world where all our poor people are fat." 9/6/81
"Minimum wage laws tend to cut the bottom rung off the economic ladder. The plain truth is there should be no minimum wage law in this great land of free enterprise." 5/17/89
"Until we are on a pay-as-you-go budget, until we have stopped inflation, I do not intend to support any public works project in the United States." 10/9/75
[During one of many Republican attacks on Social Security, Gramm defended cutting benefits to elderly citizens]: "They are 80-year-olds. Most people don’t have the luxury of living to be 80 years old, so it’s hard for me to feel sorry for them."
2 comments:
well, gramm's first comment at least has a the possibility of being true. I'm not sure what it was like in the 1980's, but since it was around the same time as the introduction of high fructose corn syrup as a cheap, miracle sweetener, which is theorized by many to be the root cause of the obesity epidemic in america. it's in everything, especially processed, inexpensive foods that people rely upon. (check it out next time you go to the store- pick something random and see if it has HFCS in it- ketchup, bread, non-fat creamer, and COKE.) I live in a pretty poor neighborhood and obesity is rampant. perhaps it's because they're slurping coke all day, living a sedentary life when they're off work, and consuming processed foods high in sugar to sustain themselves during long working hours.
I'm waiting for either candidate to address the complexity of the issue, but think that the beef industry, big oil, and monsanto are too powerfully intertwined that it would take more than one election cycle to raise that kind of awareness.
But as you know, Ashley, that comment wasn't made in sympathy with poor Americans, stating that they can only afford junk, and don't have time to cook healthy food, leading to poor health and an entire plethora of other problems. His intention was to mock them, to say "hey, they don't have it that bad."
Post a Comment