NAME: Phil Gramm
AGE: 52
OCCUPATION: United States Senator (R-Texas)
CANDIDACY ANNOUNCED:  February 24, 1995 in College Station, Texas
PLATFORM:
  * Return to Free Market Conservatism
  * End to All Foriegn Aid
  * End to all affirmative action programs
  * Balanced budget within four years or he will not run for re-election
QUOTES:

  "Our government has not lived in the real world for forty years...and
   if I become president that is going to change"

  "It is time to stop handouts to ungrateful foriegn receipients and 
   instead share the ingredients that go into the cake, which are private 
   property, free enterprise and individual freedom. In a Gramm
   administration, we will keep the cke and share the recipe"

18 responses total.

Define the "Real World," Phil.

Gramm is another individual freedom proponent who is against
abortions, and wants prayers in the schools. I don't feel that these
make me very free.

He is also an isolationist. If we followed that policy we would have
failed as a nation to make the world a better place. I think it would
be better if we tried to succeed.

  Phil Gramm is more of an economic conservative than a cultural
conservative and that may hinder his campaign efforts within the GOP.
He would say that we've run up this huge defecit trying to make the
world a better place and the U.S. hasnt gotten any respect for it
internationally anyway.  He and Buchanan are from the school of "the
hell with everyone else, America first"

Yep, and that hasn't worked well in the past.  He appears to be currying
the religious right even more than the other Republicans.  This one
definitely isn't for me.

International relations work by carrots and sticks, but he wants to eliminate
the carrot.  This seems rather strange behavior, and harkens to a different
century.  While it's true that the need for such things has declined since
1989-90 ended polarization, the carrot is still almost always cheaper and
more effective than the stick.

  One thing phil gramm has that no other candidate thus far has...his
own domain!  For campaign propoganda on gramm, go to www.gram96.org.

My impression is not that he will stop all foriegn aid no matter what.  As
the quote states it is the "ungrateful" countries that are the concern.
Countries that are recieving money and not giving anything in return.  
Even a concerted effort to move to a free market democratic society would
be something. (ie. the recipe)  He, and many others, are tired of giving 
money to countries that continue socialist or dictatorial ways; countries
that would fall on their faces without the cash we give them.  And worst of
all, the countries that take our money and use it to decry how evil we are.

Not to mention the fact that we can't afford it.  Buying friends may be
okay, but we don't have the cash for it anymore.

He is Courting the Religious right more because is is (percieved) to be 
weak there. He is not known as a strong social conservative.

Steve, he wants you to be allowed to pray in school if you want to. How does
that that make you *less* free???

Because people already *are* allowed to pray in school. There are no laws
against it, anywhere.  Now why would they make such a big deal out of it?

He doesn't want me to be allowed to pray in school. He wants Christians to
be allowed to pray in school. There's an important difference. My people
would have to endure the imposition of another person's religion. This
is not freedom at all. It is the opposite.

Incorrect Steve. 

I am not convinced by that argument.

You are technically incorrect, but are probably functionally correct, on
the Christianity point.  As for having to endure the imposition of another
person's religion, with any prayer led by an authority figure, this is
quite likely.  And, even if such a program were actively policed to ensure
that the only official action was the allocation of a "prayer time," it
is quite likely that non-Christians from faiths whose prayer requires
something more than sitting in a chair with one's hands folded would feel
uncomfortable actually exercising their "right" to worship in the manner
of their choice.  And, of course, this interferes with any notion of
freedom *from* religion.

i was only trying to be functionally correct. I agree with you Aaron.

I realized that.

Re #7:  Examples, please?  Specifically what countries are you talking
about?  Egypt?  Indonesia?  What?

        My understand is that Moslems have to bowc towards Mecca a certin
number of times during the day.  This would probably not be allowed by
most right wingers trrying to get prayer in schools, thus showing thier
hypocricy.

Here's a quote from Gramm. This was written in a letter to Iowans for Gramm
last month, and signed by Phil Gramm. It is reproduced in a sidebar of
an article in the NY Times Sat. Sept 23, p. A9 by Gustav Niebuhr.

The article is entitled: "Stumping Gramm Invokes Second Coming of Christ"

"I hope that you understand how important your role is in providing for the
future of our children. What happens in the heartland can happen anywhere.
The responsibility is awesome. I ask you to fight tirelessly and when you
are too tired to go on, remember that there is only one person who has ever
lived whose values we would be willing to see imposed on America. And when
He comes back, He's not going to need government's helps to get the job done."

Gramm is reaffirming that he wishes to impose the values of Christ on America. 

Certainly Gramm's grasp of the "real world" doesn't reach as far as my world.
My world is not all Christian. 

I think we should wait until there is a second coming before we elect Gramm.

   So mote it be!!

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