Sir,
I know you are out there advising John McCain and stuff, but I don’t think you and he are saying the same thing. Just a few days ago, McCain said the economy was in shambles.
No, really. That’s what he said.
And then, doggone it, you go and say this.
You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,” he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent 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,” he 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.
Sen. Gramm, let me ask you sir, could you come over here to northwest Tennessee? I can show you about seven empty plants, downtowns with more closed businesses than open ones and … awww, forget about it. You don’t get it. I understand that.
Oh, and now that you are with usB, well, how’s that going?
Sir, I am not a fan. I admit it. But if you are going to be McCain’s economic advisor, maybe you should know about the entire country’s economic condition and not just your rich buddies complaining that poor folks are messing with your good life.
The 12-year-old in me says this: “Bite Me.”
Your truly,
Newscoma
P.S. You might want to talk to Warren Buffett.
Newscoma 
[…] Cecily Friday Newcoma Donkey’s […]
Shorter Phil Gramm: People like me are fine!
Look, low income people in rural areas are being killed by these high food and gas prices. Its a 20 mile drive from rural areas with no stores or gas stations like Saltillo and Sardis into Savannah and Lexington. But the notion that the sky is falling is a bit hyperbolic ‘coma. Im in Jackson,Columbia, Tupelo,Florence,Huntsville,Decatur,Jasper,Cullman,Corinth, Crestview,Pensacola and Ft Walton every week. Theres numerous construction projects going on in all of those places….from major industries to hotels. The Wal Marts and restaurants are all packed out in those towns at all hours of the day and night. Also the closed plants have been around since the 90’s ‘Coma. HIS devastated Scotts Hill and Saltillo ten years ago when they left. But other towns like Adamsville,Parsons and Henderson didnt sit around and mope like other places have done when their factories closed. Henderson has restored their downtown area and Parsons demolished their abandoned factory and built a nice city hall complex in its place. Adamsville lost Garan but their economy and downtown area is better and cleaner today than it was when Garan was there ‘Coma. Savannah lost two factories as well in the 90’s but a Lowes and Kroger have located there since then and its downtown area is much better than it was when I was a teenager.
Dan, we lost those eight plants here since 1999. I know because I was part of the Rapid Response team before I got back into news as I worked at the local economic development council. Our census is down about 3000 since 2000. For a county of 35,000, that’s a few people. Those numbers are from 2006.
I know we aren’t going to die in a fiery fireball of hell, but I do think we need a dialog about it all in a reasonable fashion. Because not talking about it just creates more problems.
The question I have for you, and I’m serious when I ask, and I’ll check it out too, is the southern part of the state recovering more than northwest Tennessee. Poor Fulton, Ky/South Fulton, Tn is annihilated.
Seriously, I worked it as a program coordinator so I kinda know. Martin just had a wonderful clean up recently downtown but the businesses haven’t all returned nor has Dresden, Greenfield, Sharon or Milan but we are further north that the cities you mentioned. Paris is doing GREAT but I think it’s got really good leadership over there with Brent Greer and folks taking new approaches. Lake and Crockett Counties, not so much.
It’s a matter of what exact locations we are discussing and I just try to write about what I know. This is what I know. Working commodities and community action is what I did for the good part of a decade.
Union City lost their Kroger and K-Mart but we could do this all day. They do have a Lowes but a local, long-term hardware store was put out of business.
That is relevant.
But I’m glad WE are talking about this. The best all sides of the aisle can do is have a conversation and not point fingers and I thank you for your response.
Thanks.
Not having visited Southwest Tennessee, I can’t speak for that area, but Northwest Tennessee has been hit hard and I’m guessing a couple of the bigger employers in the area will be shipping jobs overseas within the next 10 years considering they asked for volunteers to spend a few years in China helping them open a new plant. Newscoma mentioned that Kroger left Union City. They did find a store to fill that vacant building. It was Goodwill. I think that says a lot about how the people’s paychecks aren’t keeping up with their everyday expenses.
There are a lot of people out there working in factories that aren’t getting raises. One of my friend’s husband works here in Middle Tennessee in a line job and he’s not had a raise in 5 years. makes it hard to keep up when you can’t.
Phil Graham, George Bush and Cheney and the rest of the GOP should be sent to Guantanamo for the rest of their lives… worthless pieces of SHIT.
[…] Dear Sen. Phil Gramm « Newscoma: Sen. Gramm, let me ask you sir, could you come over here to northwest Tennessee? I can show you […]
he is nuts… the guy should be in a MENTAL institution…