GOP Causes S&P Downgrade, but Republican Candidates Blame Obama

[Bill USA]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/162612/gop-causes-sp-downgrade-republican-candidates-blame-obama

It is clear from Standard & Poor’s statement downgrading the federal government’s credit rating that it places the blame squarely on Republican actions and policies. Two of S&P’s biggest concerns about whether the United States will pay off its debt are whether Republicans will be so insane as to refuse to lift the debt ceiling, a possibility Republicans intentionally stoked fears of, and whether the United States will raise much-needed tax revenue. Specifically, S&P changed its baseline assumption that the Bush tax cuts would expire on schedule in 2012 because Republicans are so insistent that they must be renewed. “We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues,” wrote S&P. That adds $4 trillion over ten years to the projected deficits.

So, how are Republican presidential candidates responding? By blaming President Obama, instead of their co-partisans in Congress who are actually responsible. “America’s creditworthiness just became the latest casualty in President Obama’s failed record of leadership on the economy,” said front-runner Mitt Romney in a statement. “His failed policies have led to high unemployment, skyrocketing deficits, and now, the unprecedented loss of our nation’s prized AAA credit rating.” Apparently, Romney knows better than S&P itself why it downgraded our credit rating, and it has nothing to do with lost revenue due to Republican tax cuts, or Republican threats not to pay our debts (a fairly straightforward threat to our creditworthiness if ever there was one.) No, it’s just because of our economic performance, which Romney seems to think is determined entirely by the actions of the president and is in no way beyond his control.
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[abelenkpe]

1. of course. nt

[MadMaddie]

2. Not surprised

Romney is an idiot...not one mention of the Teabaggers...

[bhikkhu]

3. "he made us do it"

or something of that variety, I imagine. Anyone who has raised kids can improvise on that, with the appropriate tone, pretty easily.

[FormerMillie]

4. S&P aren't the only ones who gave the US a downgrade

China's top credit rating agency did it 3 or 4 days before S&P did.

You know, there are plenty of economists who say the deal to raise the debt ceiling, with it's trillions in spending cuts, will slow the economy and might even cause the dreaded "double-dip" recession.

It kind of bothers me that in the discussions about the downgrade, no one is talking about the fact that it's economically irresponsible to cut spending right now.

Why isn't the Democratic party reminding the world about 1937 and what happened when the US took its money out of the economy then? Why are we arguing about the argument and not about the fact that the deal itself is horrible?