America's Wake Up Call .. They Finally Ruined Our Perfect Credit Rating
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Let this be a wake up call. Not one of the politicians pulling the countries' economic strings got it right throughout the budget debate. Despite warnings, they felt like they could play their political posturing games right up to the wire without effecting our credit rating. This serves as proof that they did not understand the dynamics behind this critical situation. This along with the rest of their failures in the running of this nation leads me to this submition; I submit to you that both our Democratic and Republican leaders are no more qualified to run an econimy than they are for performing brain surgery.
Dear America,
This letter begins negatively but becomes positive, so put a smile on that face and keep reading. Late yesterday afternoon our country’s credit rating got down graded for the first time in our history. Short term it will it will cause even more problems for our already over burdened economy. We are no longer the best of the best in everything.
I’ve written thousands upon thousands of words regarding American politics. Everything I’ve written focuses on the following;
1. Identifying our country’s core problems
2. How and why these problems came into being
3. Simplifying that which our government has deliberately made to seem so complicated that Americans feel helpless.
4. introducing some good old fashioned common sense.
5. Giving Americans both liberal and conservative a place to go in order to force positive changes
I have preached and will continue to preach about the failure of the Washington D.C.’s "World Famous Blame Game.” Behold, with our credit down grading less than twenty four hours old, democrats and republicans have already started the finger pointing . This is their method of solving problems. An S&L representative said in an interview last night that our government’s inability or unwillingness to address this problem until the last minute was probably the largest contributing factor to the down grading. There were many other factors, which both sides assured us wern't factors, but our unwillingness to address the problem in a timely and responsible way, caused the down grading. It is what it is folks. And how have our leaders chosen to address this history making embarrassment? By doing the only thing they seem to be capable of; pointing fingers at one another. Hell, folks .. thats what got us here! Whether you are a liberal or a conservative, resist the urge to be weak and blame the other party. It’s a waste of valuable time and energy. It takes spine to look inside and take responsibility. Instead of blaming each other, we need to apologize to one another for tolerating such bad management on both sides. We need to apologize to each other for defending these criminals, and making excuses for them. We need to apologize to one another for fighting each other instead of the leaders of our own parties who have selfishly led us down a path of destruction.
Throw away the name. Throw away the label, and wake up. OUR GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED US, and things are going to get worse until we look at this failure for what it is .. a break down of leadership on both sides. Washington set up the rules and made the decisions that moved our economy into this position. They failed, and there are only two possible reasons. Only two ..
1. They didn’t know how to do the job.
2. They knew how to do the job, but didn’t do it.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t care which one it is.
Lets imagine that the United States is a business, which it is. Now imagine that we the citizens are the stock holders, which we are. Now one more time, imagine that all the people in the White House, Congress, and the House of Represenitives are the employees that we hired to run this business, which they are. As stock holders, we have just witnessed the managers in charge of our business completely bankrupt our thirteen trillion dollar baby. What should we do? We should do our homework, and find out who's dirty and who's not. Then we should fire the filth, and put the good guys on notice while giving them our expectations and a new job description. This is precisley what we have in mind at The Housefire Project. I'm a conservative but I leave my ideologies at the door. Everyone has to do that. We don't give up our passions, we just put them to the side long enough to fix a country. http://housefireproject.com/
Here it is ..
They used this latest crisis to position themselves politically on both sides. As it turns out, neither side was fighting for us as evidenced by the results. The S&L rep. spelled it out. We got hosed by BOTH sides of the isle. They were looking at the 2012 election, not our econonic disaster. What we’ve witnessed from Washington in the last two weeks has been both nauseating and embarrassing. Yes, they have embarrassed the citizens of the greatest country in the world, and now it’s the time to turn this tragedy into something positive. Think about this a minute .. If God himself got into a sky painting plane and wrote these words across a vast blue sky .. “America Unite!”.. what we have to do could not be clearer. Perhaps He just did ..
For questions about The Housefire Project, go to our web site at http://housefireproject.com/ or drop me a personal e-mail via The Hub Pages.
jb (tmwnp)
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We just seem to be terribly divided. I often go to political chats, and I have been accused of being a liberal because I attempt to find consensous. I believe that, as Peter addressed in one of his hubs, that we have an invisible government that transcends a left/right paradigm. We keep fighting each other, and to some extent, they like it that way. I hope we can all put aside our differences and hold DC accountable as well as learn to vote the person, rather than the party.
Peter,
Thanks for being first on the scene my man! Yep, it's time to get to work. We got the wake up call.
jim
BukowskiBabe,
You got it girl. The government keeps us distracted with this division while they pick pur pockets. Don't fall for it. Let's get back to basics.
jim
This was a tragedy and horribly embarassing. However, you can look at it positively. Maybe this means that the people who are two busy not paying attention will have opened their eyes just a little bit. After all, that is what is going to be needed. We need the people of the United States to stand together now... so we can fix this mess.
BTW - maybe they should start fixing the problems and stop focusing on election. I say they should take their election money - but that toward the deficit!!! Blah! I hate political calls!
In your last comment you mention getting back to basics. To me that means the founding documents which most people are unfamiliar with including our leader who some news articles have referred to as a constitutional scholar.I have read that they don't even teach the constitution in some top of the line Law Schools.
Jim - Another good hub from my friend and neighbor. Your point of comparing government to business was great, because that is exactly what it is. As stock holders, we would never sit back and watch the board of directors drive a company in which we were invested drive it into the ground. And all of us are heavily invested in our government.
Their inability to get something done until minutes before the deadline did not speak well of their ability. Most of us know this deadline thing was nothing more than we see on most of the Reality shows on TV today. "We have to have this motorcycle ready to run by Friday" is one that comes to mind.
Threatening to not pay SS and Veterans Benefits while the clock was ticking down was despicable. My take on this was they shifted the importance of arriving at a sound workable plan to just getting something done by the deadline. We were supposed to be so happy they got it done on time, we would not look at the sorry ass plan they put in place. And to a degree, their plan was successful. SS and Veterans Benefit checks went out on time, and many were relieved and our politicians were heroes. They all declared themselves the winner, and went on vacation.
Then comes the ratings people who were not fooled at all by the circus side show we were forced to watch. They said "Oops, to little to late, and we still have to downgrade you." At the end of the plan that was put together, Obama got his debt ceiling raised, and we were told of budget cuts that may, or may not, happen. We have seen nothing in writing as to what was cut. We will still be buying $700 toilet seats and giving money to countries who hate us, and will loan this same money back to us so we then pay interest on the loans.
As much as I hate seeing us downgraded, at least someone called them out on the phony show they put on for we citizens. They now have some tall explaining to do. And bottom line, it happened on Obama's watch. He failed to show the kind of leadership needed to get us through this crisis. He will go down is history as the only president in the history of this country to allow us to be downgraded. Shame on him.
Great Hub. I particularly liked the five focus areas, and the two alternatives as to 'why' the job did not get done.
I would add to that the reports that the downgrade rating may have in part been based on a Two Trillion Dollar error in the analysis, where we have an additional and perhaps flawed perspective that the job did not get done. This just adds that much more uncertainty to the mix. If it does turn out the dongrade is based on an error, it's my guess that there will be an investigation into manipulating the market.
In my opinion, Dahoglund is on the mark with respect to getting back to the Constitutional basic principles, and this goes with your first focus area, identifying the problem. The trouble is, getting consensus from enough different perspectives to have enough weight to push into focus are number two, how did it get to be this way?
So, a challenge question if you are up for it (and I know you've read some of my articles on the topic), what sort of change can be instituted that allows us average ordinary everday people to become part of the solution (those five focus areas) day-to-day, rather than once every two, four, or six years?
BG.
You know that's what I'm about girl. No more time for fighting .. too much work to do 4 sure. Thanks for the read!
jim
Dahoglund,
Yes, I mean back to the constitution. Obama no doubt knows what the Constitution says. He's made a life of working around it.
jim
Young Pool Dude,
Thanks for the read, comments, and thoughts. We the people do not have to accept this, and shouldn't. The question isn't in what they'll do. (our leaders) We already know that. The question is what will WE do? Will we continue on like sheep going to slaughter? Not me!
jim
FJ,
The Housefire Project has a few objectives that work with one another in order to clean the playing field. Before I get into that, let me just say that the big change happens when our leadership finds out that the people caught on to their game, are watching, and have some defined expectations. THP focusses on 1. Campaign Finance Reform 2. Political Security Act. (back ground check, psychological profile, and Constitution testing required for anyone running for a federal office) 3. Term Limits 4. The Fair Tax
Further, THP will keep the issues in front of the people, and give them access to having their voice heard with the touch of a computer key pad.
Thanks for the careful read and well thought out questions and comments my friend.
jim
Thanks for answering.
I like the first three because they appear to focus on undoing the notion of 'politician as a career that can be achieved through sufficent funding.'
I'd like to find someone who has objectives: restoring States representation and rights, and elimation of separate compensation and benefit packages for representatives & Senators. Since you might know off-hand, are their other non-profits out there that have these as objectives?
Are you still 'on' in Iowa?
FJ,
Yes, It's Labor Day weekend. Palin's going to be there now and it's going to be really big now. How Palin being there completely changed some of the dynamics of the event is nothing short of wierd to me. I'll tell you about that some other time.
I can't find any organization that's attacking what we're after. I wish I could. Then I could go back into the business of making money. (laughing) Just kidding. I love doing this more than I like making money.
jim
jim - They were warned by S & P in particular. After two and a half years of spending more than 4 trillion dollars like drunken sailors on shore leave the signal was given that they expected spending cuts in the 4 trillion range.
Obama has spent us in a very deep hole and he wants to keep spending more. All the boobs on Capitol Hill don't want to be responsible for inflicting the pain that needs to now be inflicted because of their hypocrisy of thinking you can keep spending more money than you are receiving.
When the markets open tomorrow we'll see the reaction of the announcement that was made late Friday. All we've seen so far is the same political theater done by the same players who screwed us in the first place. Time for some serious change now. If not, the Republic as we know it is going straight down the sh*tter.
The Frog
I know I am losing it, but my latest thoughts are the outcome was all set and planned from the beginning. The behind closed door budget talks were really just a poker game with expensive refreshments paid for by the tax payers. Poor babies were forced to work a whole weekend to come up with the garbage they delivered. It was a farce, a con game, and nothing more and we all know it.
Poolman, I read your post a bit earlier about what happened with the debt ceiling. This isn't true folks...it is a line that was devised and spoon fed. The "great scare" wasn't a great scare at all. It was reality. 87 members in the House refused to put anything on the table whatsoever. In fact, Obama twice offered more in cuts than even the Republicans offered. No dice. NOTHING would be allowed to be put on the table other than cuts. No corporate welfare ($186 billion last year), no offshore tax havens, no corporate jet subsidies, no oil company subsidies for doing nothing, not even ending the subsidies to ship jobs overseas. NPR was on the table the first day in office, but corporate jet subsidies (which are small but still cost more than NPR does to the government) were not. Many of that little group clearly stated that they WANTED this to go down. Many of these people will tell your face that they want the government to shut down. Cantor runs the roost with them and wants Boehner's job mind you. It got so bad, that even the Republican leadership realized that we can't get realistic and necessary legislation through to keep the country from defaulting on its debt, hence Republicans presenting the idea of a new legislative body, the party who daily will tell you how faithful to the Constitution they are, just to get something through. They realized they can't even negotiate with these people, much less the opposing side. Guys - 87 people, some based upon ignorance and some on malice, held the country hostage, literally. It was so bad that our credit rating was lowered. When asked why S&P downgraded us, S&P's first answer involved our ability to politically get anything done. We were on the brink of potentially defaulting based upon 87 numbskulls.
Now, I see you questioned how bad it would have been if we didn't raise it. You appear to believe that it was a "great scare." I ask you to go look back into history, our nation's history, and read how other Presidents have described the situation when this comes up. Could we have skated for a few weeks, paid our bondholders, SS, and some of VA benefits (not enough to pay all 3 entirely within the month without raising)...but what about the rest of the 80 million checks sent out each month? There are quite a few things that couldn't have gotten knocked out, serious things. These aren't new debts. The single largest contributor to our debt is the Bush tax cuts...every single economic measuring group states that clearly. Yet, anybody on the right talking about letting that go? Many of the very things which added the largest part to the debt, were voted in favor of by the very people who were now not wanting to pay for them.
This concept that we are still living in the Reagan days, when Democrats ran the Congress for 40 years before and were horrible. Those days have long since passed. We are now living in the world where an economic theory (supply side economics) is proven for 30 years to be fake, not to work, while we are living in the fruition of this very concept right now and it is not working. We allow this idea that if we give as many benefits to the top 2% and corporations that things will work out. It hasn't. The middle class began shrinking with the onslaught of this idea in the middle 70s. Now we have the largest disparity in our nation's history. How has that worked out? We are living in the rhetoric filled world that Reagan was a mythical figure who fought all tax increases, got the economy going and we all thrived. That isn't reality. He raised taxes 18 times after that great tax cut. By his 3rd year, in starting with 6.5% unemployment, was at 10.8%. The myth wasn't real. The expansion of credit, the personal computer, and the concept that we can build a economic engine that is based upon transactions while producing and providing nothing else came about. Clinton's economy boomed due to the internet. It created a huge and new revenue stream for the country. Deregulation led to S&P, Dot.com, the mortgage industry, and then the securitization food chain of passing along risk. Why are we still pushing the idea that regulation is the enemy? Regulation is created due to an incident, not just made up in the basement by liberals for no reason. Don't dump sewage into the river and you won't have regulation stating you can't. Don't blow off safety checks and then promise the regulator a job next year for a favorable review and your oil rig won't blow up with no way to stop it. We have clear issues with deregulation going on, while still sitting in the boat of the latest financial crisis, and conservatives are defunding the very agencies and bills designed to directly address the causes of these issues...while we are still suffering.
Come on people...this isn't the old world anymore. We allow a single Senator to hold up ANY legislation if they feel like it. We allow a minority in the House to prevent absolutely ANYTHING from moving forward. We allow the threat of a filibuster in record numbers to prevent even the appointments of the President 3 years into his Presidency, still. We were downgraded because we are lunatics right now. Acting like we are all just disagreeing with each other is a farce. We have damned crazy people, admittedly naive prior to Obama, all the sudden active, and fed their information by AFP and Freedomworks, both of which are built with the purpose of providing that very information for the benefit of people like its founder, David Koch. How is this happening? How is it that they can't see this? We have allowed this country to be taken hostage by a group of people who get their political notions from chain emails that they don't check for their accuracy. I mean, come on! A closet Manchurian candidate secret Muslim, bred from birth by a single mother and grandmother, to sneak into the Presidency and hand it over to Muslims and socialists? Seriously? This is something we hear and are asked to take these people seriously? Are you kidding me? A socialist? Are these people out of their minds? Go read the definition of socialism and then look over Obama's policies. Even the health care plan uses clear market principles and not a shred of socialism within the entire damned thing. Come the F on! Stop playing rhetoric games and be honest. Deficit spending like the stimulus plan isn't socialism. It pumps money into a stagnant market system to keep the flow moving. It is a Keynes move for sure, but Keynes is not and never was a socialist. It is also how every single other country on the planet handles a recession. The bailout of the auto industry? Was that socialist? Not really. It was in part, I'll give you that...government took over, demanded certain things, gave it back when it worked. Without it, 2 million more jobs and then the entire supply chain would have flowed into an economy that at the time was losing 750,000 jobs a month. Socialists don't give it back. Cash for clunkers? Oh come on...that has nothing to do whatsoever with socialism. It was simply a plan. Did it work...debatable. Who gives a S?! It got the market for American autos going again. That part worked. Come the freak on people! Can we seriously stop acting like children, stop calling names that don't really apply, and get serious? S&P downgraded us because we can't deal with our own problems because of this very thing. I am asking us to stop acting like little freaking kids, stop throwing out bs, admit when our team screws up, and tackle some of these serious issues. Think of those huge accomplishments we have achieved in the past. How would we get ANY of those things done today, in this political climate? It starts here, not on Capitol Hill. Unless we as people, simple folk talking to each other over the web, can't get through a single conversation without bullsh#, then why would we think our representatives could?
I guess some people aren't paying attention. The House passed two bills and sent them to the Senate. Harry Reid tabled both bills. Spin away, spin away.
Tex, do you know of a link that identifies the 87 who screwed the pooch on this issue? I would love to know who they are. FP is right, Harry Reid should have been horse whipped and sent home for declaring those bills DOA without even reading them. That act alone shows how much he was willing to compromise and work something out to the benefit of all. I don't doubt what you say, I would just like to see the names of these 87 idiots.
Froggy ideologue, those bills were trash. Just because they send a bill to the Senate doesn't mean because the Senate doesn't pass them that its the Senate's fault. The bills were crap. Boehner demanded one thing, Obama gave more, the Tea Party wanted even more than that. Hell, one bill had a cap on Medicare payouts of $15k a year! That was supposed to be passed, when the Tea Party wouldn't even listen to taking away subsidies for shipping jobs overseas and jet owners? Are you freaking kidding me? Frog - you display the EXACT reason why we got downgraded. When asked why, we should just send people to your hubs. THIS folks is where we are and whom we have to blame.
Poolman - Yeah, it is easy to look up the 80 plus. Look up the Tea Party caucus and there you'll have it. Plus, what makes you think Harry Reid didn't read the bills? We all knew what was in those bills...why wouldn't he know? Those 2 bills were ridiculous! When the bills call for things like cutting Medicare to $15k a year, and not a single element of revenue whatsoever, why in the world would not voting for them mean there was no compromise? Wouldn't that compromise idea HAVE to be directed at the people who wrote and proposed those bills? There were no elements of compromise within those bills? If I give you a bill that says anyone making over $1 million should be taxed at 100%, and you don't even consider voting for it, then are you not compromising, or am I not compromising for not putting something legitimate in the very bill in the first place? I mean, come on people! I try to be honest, throw out rhetoric and say, HEY, we can't agree on the toilet paper much less serious issues and we are letting idiots and ideologues run this place...and I get Froggy in response? That dude IS the definition of the problem. Come on man! Are we just passed the point of debate, of admitting actual facts and statistics? Do we have to look at a non-partisan as representing one side, and Heritage and Cato presenting the other side? That isn't how it is supposed to work! The non-partisan IS the resource; the Heritage IS the spin. Huffington IS the spin. When did we just decide, screw it, we'll act like 13yr olds for the rest of our lives when it comes to politics and our nation's future?
Yeah right. Trash is spending more money than you bring in. Keep your ideological Democratic crap where it belongs. The same place we're about to dump Obama - in the trash can.
Tex, all of the meetings were held behind closed doors, and the only information I ever got was from the talking heads on the news, and the speeches made by some of the politicians. I believe Reid said he was not going to even read the bills. Just out of curiosity, how did you find out what was in those two bills?
Excellent article. And believe it, or not, i agree with every word you wrote. It is truly time for both sides to meet in the middle and get real with some compromises that will benefit the people, not only the wealthy.
I just have one question for you: Although i agree that the government would do well being run as a business, my question is simple: Exactly which "top executives" would get to be paid those huge annual bonuses?
I am very interested in learning more about the 'house fire project'. In reading all of the comments, i can see that your words have not sunk in to some heads that this fighting and finger pointing has to end before any progress can be made or even started. Pointing fingers and blaming either party has never been a solution for any problem and is still NOT.
Frog, the concept of government is that is CAN operate in the red. That is the concept...when the economy is crashing and no money is being moved, it CAN spend the money to keep the economy moving. This debt wasn't new. It started in 1790. You don't make money from building a bridge or paying a standing army. Not everything has to generate revenue. It is called a public good.
Poolman - http://thomas.loc.gov/home/LegislativeData.php?&n=
There are lots of sites that offer direct text and records of how the House votes daily.
I haven't seen anything on Reid saying he wouldn't read the bills, but have seen him make comments on those very plans offered by the Republican House. Logic would dictate that since those comments were right on in my opinion, he knew what was in those plans. Considering the Democrat side was trying to get the ceiling raised to avoid a meltdown and putting everything including the holy trinity of entitlements on the table, and the other side was using it as a leverage and claiming that by them showing up, they had given enough...I tend to go with logic on that one, meaning that yeah, Harry Reid knew what was in those bills. He wasn't trying to grandstand and get political motivations out of this deal...they were just trying to raise the debt ceiling to pay our freaking bills. It was the Republicans and Tea Party caucus in general, who were using this as a game of chicken and trying to gut everything they could, aside from corporate welfare and the defense department.
DW- I get your point, and to an extent you are correct. Some of us are still bickering politically...and I'll admit that both parties got us into this debt issue...however, pretending that we are all equal in terms of responsibility with regards to our credit rating being lowered and how this Congress has acted, is not accurate and legitimate. This isn't an equal blame game anymore. This is clear. One group is saying, "screw it- the moon is made of cheese and i am not voting for anything that doesn't claim it is true.'
Our national credit rating (and now our personal credit ratings!) was downgraded by S&P because of our massive debt and because we have no plan to decrease our debt. I got that right from David Beers, Standard and Poors' credit rating manager for nation ratings, and the man who downgraded us.
So don't try to tell me or anyone else that our massive federal spending and the resulting $14 trillion+ debt is not the problem! It most certainly is the problem.
Government is always the problem which is why we so desperately need to control it.
Here...read all about it...stop the debt spending! :
The new concept of government is it WON'T operate in the red. Cap, Cut & Balance. That's the ticket.
Here's another link:
Wow. If nothing else, it is fairly obvious that TexasBeta feels strongly about his perspective.
I'm with WillStarr when he says 'Government is always the problem which is why we so desperately need to control it.' This was recognized by our founding fathers and is why they came up with the original system of governance. We've mangled it to the point that it is the two-party finger-pointing name-calling system we see today. That needs to be fixed before we can get back to the notion of 'rational dialog on issues'.
FitnessJim - Return the federal government to what was envisioned - run by the common man for the common man.
Did you all just ignore the S&P's statements about our political climate doesn't appear to be one in which we appear capable of governing ourselves? We've had debt. We've had MORE debt than we do now when measured against GDP. The thing is, we didn't have morons in the office who live in their own fantasyland, like you and your tea party types. I mean, Boehner even had to come up with a new legislative body...the GOP head came up with this. Why? Because he knew you can't get anything even through that group of numbskulls even to the catastrophe of the entire global climate. They don't care. You don't care. We weren't downgraded because we have too much debt; we were downgraded because you psychopaths are too ignorant to acknowledge how to fix it. Instead, you spout bumper stickers. The founders were for the common man? Are you out of your mind? Do you read history at all? None of these guys were common men. None were broke sharecroppers. These were the wealthiest men in the country. They are the ones who had it where the states would select Senators, as opposed to the common vote we now have, because they didn't think regular people were smart enough to make the proper vote. House votes were for the common people, and the Senate was to counter their ignorant votes. We've changed that obviously to the favor OF the COMMON MAN, as our common people are more educate than our past's counterparts. Don't forget, these are the same people who said blacks were worth 2/3 of a real human being and that sickness was caused by the devil inside of you. Don't put them in deity levels. If you want to know what they were arguing about, what they said, you can go look it up people. You can read the federalist/anti-federalist argument. However, you are doing yourself a detriment to your argument if you stop there. The world has evolved, grown. You need to go ahead and continue that reading experience up to the present day.
Why do I bother really? Will and Frogman could care less about what is actually true. Ideologues are called ideologues for a reason.
Personal attacks, insults, and your opinion are all meaningless.
The S&P said they downgraded us because they wanted to see $4 trillion in cuts. They also said that had the Republican's Cut, Cap, and Balance Act become law, we would not have been downgraded.
Instead, the Democrats tabled it, and Obama said he would veto it!
Will - He doesn't let things like FACTS get in his way. LMAO
From S&P:
http://www.standardandpoors.com/servlet/BlobServer
"We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and
will remain a contentious and fitful process."
The next day response from S&P
"We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’ and affirmed the ‘A-1+’ short-term rating.
– We have also removed both the short- and long-term ratings from CreditWatch negative.
– The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.
– More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011.
– Since then, we have changed our view of the difficulties in bridging the gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government’s debt dynamics any time soon.
– The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. We could lower the long-term rating to ‘AA’ within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case."
You stating what you believe over and over again without providing or addressing actual links to the actual words used by the very group involved doesn't make you right. It just makes you persistent and childish. That mentality reminds me of...oh yeah, wait...that is EXACTLY how the Tea Party caucus acted which led this THIS.
When, exactly, are you people going to address revenue? You HAVE to eliminate NPR, but private jet subsidies or subsidies for companies shipping jobs overseas are off the table, no way you'll even consider that, huh?
Finally, WILL - the Cut, Balance and whatever act HAD NO SPECIFIC CUTS! That was the problem. It gave a number and that was it. Show me one reference of S&P making that statement. When you don't show it...are you going to act like a man and admit you lied? Of course not.
Wow, This place really lit up. Tex is passionate and believes what he says. He doesn't lie. The Republicans made some bad calls. I admit that. I'm not going to write a book on where the democrats blew it. He's smart and he knows it was a 37 year team effort. Tex, I love ya bud, but ya gotta start thinking country not party. I'm too damn smart to take up for the conservatives up there on the Hill. You're too damn smart to be wasting your time defending the liberals. Both sides sold us out a long time ago. You can't look me in the eye and tell me you're not horribly disappointed in Obama. I don't blame you for sticking up for him I guess. Hell, if anybody finds a crack in the armer, they'd probably crusify you for admiting a lack of perfection. That wouldn't happen in here though. These guys are pretty cool conservatives. Anyway, I know there are some liberals out there who want to fix their party. I'm going to get busy addressing the conservative problems. See dude, I don't like bums, and I don't like bull shit artists. With the exception of some new blood on both sides, that's all we have up ther pulling the strings.
Thanks to everyone for hanging out here at my hub and comenting. Now let's get to work.
jim
We are $14+ trillion in debt, but this administration and the Dems refused to stop spending and borrowing, so we lost our triple A rating.
So who do the Dems blame?
The Tea Party! The only ones who really want to put the reins on this nonsense!
The comments on this hub are a perfect example of why we may never get out of this mess. There are hard facts out their that are conveniently ignored. Will we ever get together and do the hard work? I for one am beginning to lose faith. If the only thing to come out of this for the President and the Dems is to throw the Tea Party under the bus God Hep Us. Up and awesome!
Will,
It's all politics my man. Time to start over.
jim
Guys, I get what you are all saying. Why aren't any of the Tea Party ilk not addressing revenue? S&P addressed revenue. The President addressed revenue. You can't cut your way to prosperity...you have to have a joint effort. The Tea Party ONLY will sign up for spending cuts, but again, ignore EVERY SINGLE ELEMENT that addresses changing the tax code, shoring up loopholes, stopping subsidies to oil companies for speculating, subsidies to corporations for shipping jobs overseas, private jet owners, anything. At what point can these people keep this up with a straight face? The Tea Party wants to cut spending, but only on things THEY don't like. That isn't mature. That isn't the saving grace. That is called an taking advantage of the situation for your own personal set of beliefs. I saw the Tea Party leaders step up to the Ryan plan, and the Tea Party populace on the news stating that if you cut their Medicare, that they are out. Let's be upfront here. This isn't a mature effort to limit spending. This is a culture war where this small block of people want to hijack the country and the global economy over cutting spending on things like NPR and Planned Parenthood. You aren't being clever folks. You are being transparent. It is childish. If we could have shown that we have the political will to get things done that need to get done, then we wouldn't have been downgraded. However, we have 87 children in the House who cannot get passed the fact that the earth revolves around the sun.
I tell ya what...if the Tea Party was in favor of real reform, if they fought for what they really claim, then I would feel differently. We have the financial reform bill...what do the Tea Party guys do? They try to defund it, to stop it from being enforced. The consumer protection agency...fight it at all costs. SEC increased regulation and enforcement...fight it at all costs. Take away subsidies to the very rich for doing nothing but being very rich...no way. Corporations aren't paying their taxes...what do we do....Tea Party says let them. Come on! This isn't a populist movement trying to fight for the common man. That is a tag line for a commercial. They are fighting for flawed logic and to keep the power OUT of the hands of the common man. They want to eliminate the department of Energy, of Education, the EPA, the IRS...come on! You have to be kidding me! Anybody not seeing this movement as the hand of people like David Koch, promoted by people who can't get their heads around what is actually happening and are easily manipulated.
Little Sister With Giant Brain,
The important thing is to be a part of the solution, not the problem. Confidence builds confidence, and attracts other people who want to be problem solvers. This "working together" and meaning it thing is a new concept for people. It's very attractive, and once again, it's bullet proof. NEVER, NEVER, lose faith Patti, unless you lose faith in your ability to stand up for what's right. Don't wory about anyone else. Just be the best little BP you can be, and others will follow suit. Failure is the greatest formula for purification. The future is difficult, but bright Patti.
jim
Tex,
The Tea Party only gets one thing right. Getting Americans involved. That's the hard part. Now we get em involved with reality. The department of education is failing, the department of energy is failing, the post office is failing. The government IS NOT CAPABLE OF RUNNING A BUSINESS Tex. I'm not saying we have to get rid of these agencies, but you don't continue paying for a broken product, you fix it.
Years ago, my son got picked up for minor in possession. He was with a bunch of friends. When all us parents were gathered at the jail, they began blaming the other kids for corrupting their kid. What a stupid waste of time. I could care less about the other kids. MY kid screwed up, and I dealt with him. JR turend out to be an outstanding human being. The other kids? Not so good. Their parents taught them how to blame someone else for failure. I don't play that game. I never will. You CAN NOT trust anyone up there on the Hill. Tex. you don't know a damn thing about them nor do I. You can't go by what they say. All we can go by is what they've shown us, which is one failure on top of another. Results are results. Both sides have taken turns being in control, and both sides have failed for almost 40 years. Actually longer, now that I think about it. Your a fighter Tex. I respect that about you. The only problem is you swing at air. I'm determined to get you on my side so that you can enjoy the REAL sting of battle.
jim
Good anvise that many should heed. It's not there problem to bare it is ours. The people of the U.S. can no longer stick their collective heads in the sand and get by on the notion that their one voice can mean change. Rise up and speak!!
Big Bad John,
Say it brother! You've got a handle on it.
jim
My man with no pants - Brother, I am on your side. We believe the method to get there is different, but trust me man, I am with you. I trust your motivations quite a bit. You are a good dude. Also, I agree that the Tea Party's biggest achievement is getting more people involved and interested. I just wish they would get their info from other sources than Heritage and Freedomworks. Still though, they are in their infancy, and that takes time. I know that. They are caught up in the fervor and will be for a while. Hopefully, it will actually develop into a real populist movement.
With regards to the govt running a business...well, the Post Office was not supposed to be profitable. That was the point. It was a public service...the government can operate in the red. Show me where Fedex can get an envelope across the country in 4 days for $.50. It is true that they are jerks there, horrible customer service, and who knows where your mail disappears to when it gets lost. I'll totally give you that. To the counterpoint however, Goldman runs one hell of a business. They also destroy hundreds of thousands of lives every month in doing so. WalMart is one hell of a business. The stores are trash, the employees are mistreated and kept from things like health care or vacation time, and their methodology puts third world societies handcuffed to a slave labor atmosphere. So, I dunno man. I would prefer the government playing in the middle somewhere. I don't have all of the answers though man...you know that. I can't even get my damned puppy to stop deucing on the rug in the hallway.
You have such a talent in putting things into understandable and common sense perspective. Your key point, the US Govt is a business. Speaking from a position in which I sold supplies to the Federal Govt for 6 years, I can tell you it is a broken business.
To your point, it we erase our memories of political party and just focus on how each individual did their job, we should be disappointed with both sides. I think point #2 is the correct one, they knew how to do their job but simply did not do it. Both sides are setting up the rhetoric for 2012 elections. I can see it now, they will use misleading facts and rhetoric to smear each other in hopes of re-elections.
True solution is for citizens to wake up and take peaceful political action. This means consistently contacting the white house and your members of congress to express your thoughts and ideas. This means VOTING IN THE PRIMARIES so that we don't have to chose from 'bad candidate' or 'worse candidate.' This means getting issues onto ballots so that ordinary citizens can vote and make decisions. This means demanding real reform so that there is no incentive for politicians to constantly seek re-election (term limits!)
LRC - Dang man, I wish I would have said what you just said. You are right on the money with this statement.
Is this an 'I told you so' speech- well, it should be because many of us have seen this coming and we've been nodding our head in agreement with you for the past several months. THank you for keeping America inspired to see what's really going on. The fingerpointing between parties is very tiresome, but we are a society who is a product of the media. On TV and radio extremists from both sides are ranting and raving and finger pointing so no wonder the less informed and group-think type of people are following the crowd. We need some people to rise above all that and thank you again for being that person to inspire that in people.
'Why aren't any of the Tea Party ilk not addressing revenue? S&P addressed revenue. The President addressed revenue."
'Revenue' is liberal-speak for tax increases, rather than reducing socialism spending.
Over 60% of our spending is on various social programs, and that is where the real trouble lies. The liberals absolutely refuse to even consider cutting back on social programs, even though they are obviously bankrupting our country.
And now we learn that Obamacare will actually cost several times what we were told. No surprise there!
The verdict is not in yet on Health Care. So, we are all in chicken-little 'what-to-do? what-to-do?' mode until the Supreme Court decides whether it is ok for the government to mandate a fee from us. Oversimplified, but there it is.
This comment was made without any name-calling, finger-pointing, or reference to party.
Remember in November 2012.
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wah yo ngene a artikel iku. maknyus... ga mbulet bahasae
Tex,
Super Heros come in many sizes, shapes, and ideologies. You ARE a Super Star. I get mad at ya but I love ya dude. (in a non creepy way)
jim
LRC,
You're a good human being, and you're smart. Without a smart person to listen, I'm just another fool. Glad you're on my side bro.
jim
Laura, Some times I wonder if I do what I do because of a good feeling I get when you talk.
jim
Fitness Jim.
You did it man! God I love it when people step up.
jim
ozenk.
I hear ya. Nano, Nano bro.
jim
Finally, it's not the d's or the r's it's just the lazy our the thieves, period, now prosecute and start all over. I think they all need jaime and boyfriends!
Let's face it, they can't new that stupid so they are that criminal!
![The Debt Ceiling Debate and Compromise: Who Won? [65]](http://s3.hubimg.com/u/5337158_50.jpg "The Debt Ceiling Debate and Compromise: Who Won? [65]")
PETER LUMETTA Level 6 Commenter 9 months ago
Good idea Jim, lets get our house in order and put these "children" to bed. We all need to get involved,
Peter