Phil Gramm is Conservatism

Bill Scher, Our Future
Phil
Gramm thinks that the economy is wonderful and those that feel otherwise are
mistaken. This is does not make Gramm uniquely callous. It just makes him a
conservative.
For several years, conservatives have been mightily trying to insist the
economy tastes great, so shut up and eat it.
At the end of 2004, the National
Review's economic editor Larry Kudlow proclaimed, "The U.S. economy is
hitting on all cylinders as 2004 passes into 2005 ... Most in the mainstream
media steadfastly refuse to give the economy a break." He railed that
"amidst all this economic good news," a "declinist rant"
was being perpetrated by "big-media."
15
months later, Kudlow regurgitated:
It’s always amazing to listen to conventional demand-side economic pundits
and mainstream reporters who try as hard as they can to minimize the excellent
performance of the American economy ever since lower marginal tax-rate
incentives were put into place almost two-and-a-half years ago. ... Of course,
you can’t please the worrywarts.
In December
2005, Fox News' Fred Barnes also pointed a finger at "the media" for marring the pretty picture:
...gas prices have fallen, I think new home sales, maybe it was old home
sales, anyway, one of them set a record last month. And, and this 4 percent
growth has been going on month after month after month after month. It’s really
an extraordinary economy.
And yet, when you look at the polls you’re so fond of, they show that the
American people think they’re fine, but that the rest of the people in the
country are doing poorly economically. Why is that? ... Because, obviously
people know how they’re doing, but they have to rely on the media to tell them
how the rest of the economy is outside their neighborhood. And the media has
been entirely negative.
A year later, just before the 2006 congressional elections, Barnes
lamented in the Weekly Standard: "The economy, strong as it is, hasn't
produced a feeling of prosperity."
In June 2007, Washington
Post columnist George Will concluded that Democrats had a "Prosperity
Problem," based on Will's world of cherry-picked stats:
In the 102 quarters since Ronald Reagan's tax cuts went into effect more
than 25 years ago, there have been 96 quarters of growth. Since the Bush tax
cuts and the current expansion began, the economy's growth has averaged 3
percent per quarter, and more than 8 million jobs have been created. The
deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product is below the post-World War
II average.
Democrats, economic hypochondriacs all, see economic sickness.
And in January of this year, the National
Review's David Gitlitz could only explain the looming recession on
something other than economic reality:
If the U.S.
is capable of talking itself into an economic downturn, we may be on the cusp
of the first recession in history caused by a bad mood ... it’s not difficult
to understand why the economic mood of the country is so bad. It’s nearly
impossible to avoid the media’s constant deluge of economic negativism...
This is conservatism. The dismissal of economic burdens from others making
less money than you. The belief that an ideal economy can thrive with a small
boat of winners and a giant sinking ship of losers. The insistence that your
economic dissatisfaction is illegitimate, and can only be explained by a
brainwashing from the media or politicians.
Gramm's only unique remark was expanding the blame beyond "big
media" and "the Democrats" to ... everybody. Calling America "a nation of
whiners" only made glaring the fundamental elitism of conservatism.
But make no mistake. Gramm is conservatism.
It is precisely his attitude that has shaped conservative economic policies
throughout the Bush Era. Massive tax giveaways to those earning more than
$250,000. No investment to make education, clean energy and health insurance
affordable to all citizens and businesses. No effective oversight of
irresponsible corporations plundering the middle-class.
With the Bush Era ending, the choice is ours whether we want to continue
being condescended to by conservatism in the coming years, or decide it is time
for a progressive vision that
puts our government and economy back in our own hands.