'America already has one Dr. Phil'

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama ridiculed an economic adviser to Republican rival John McCain on Thursday for dubbing the United States "a nation of whiners" and suggesting the country is in a "mental recession."
Phil Gramm, a former Texas senator who is a vice chairman of the Swiss bank UBS, made the remarks in an interview with The Washington Times. Gramm has a doctorate in economics.


"America already has one Dr. Phil. We don't need another one when it comes to the economy," Obama said during a town-hall event focused on helping women advance economically.

Obama drew cheers and laughter with that comment and boos and hisses when he read Gramm's quotes to the crowd. He contrasted them with rising gas and food prices, home foreclosures and job layoffs.

"It's not just a figment of your imagination," Obama said. "Let's be clear. This economic downturn is not in your head.It isn't whining to ask government to step in and give families some relief," he said, drawing a standing ovation from the nearly 3,000 people in a high school gymnasium. "And I think it's time we had a president who doesn't deny our problems or blame the American people for them but takes responsibility and provides the leadership to solve them."

The economy is the top issue of voters, and, thus, has become the No. 1 issue in the presidential campaign as each candidate seeks to portray the other as out of touch with the country's struggles and himself as the leader able to pull the nation out of tenuous times. As he sought to differentiate himself from McCain, Obama seized on quotes attributed to Gramm by the Washington newspaper.

"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," Gramm told the Times. He noted that growth has held up at about 1% 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," Gramm 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.

As readers of this blog know.....I am from Texas. I wrote a letter to Phil Gramm when he was our Senator. He was just as cold blooded then. My Mother, a life long Republican who helped to elect him needed his help with her Medicare and Social Security. I wrote him and told him about how she devoted her time and care to him.
I never heard back a word from him. Kay Bailey Hutchinson wrote me back asking for money. Phil Gramm is a self centered sanctimonious delusional man who would steal when he doesn't have to. He epitomizes the economic principals of Reaganomics that
espouse the GOP philosophy of "I got mine, get your own or you are just a lazy fool".