Today is

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Republican Congress Signals Shrinkage - S&P Downgrades U.S.

The handwriting was on the wall.

Some excerpts from the S&P statement:

Think Progress Excerpt:

[...]The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy.

[...]It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options.

[...]The act contains no measures to raise taxes or otherwise enhance revenues, though the committee could recommend them.

[...]Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.

This is a damning indictment of the ideological calculator Republicans and their Tea Party mutants signed up for when they superceded their oath of office by pledging to nitwit norquist never to raise tax revenues under any circumstances. The message is clear to the S&P. Why can’t others see it?

As long as these sloven miscreants remain uncompromising on tax revenues, the outlook on the long-term rating will remain negative. The more they cut spending, the more they signal shrinkage. Like everything else lacking in government today, we needed a "balanced approach" of cuts and revenue for growth and to get the budget and debt on solid footing.

Michael Moore was right. America is awash in money. Even the S&P knew we had to start pumping it out of areas that are beyond floodstage in order to wet the seeds of job growth laying in drought.

No comments:

Post a Comment