It boggles the mind to see how print and television media are running around like headless chickens because the financial services company Standard and Poors lowered its outlook on the federal debt. They tend to forget that S&P were the same group that gave AAA ratings to the mortgage industry just 3 or 4 years ago! They were the ones who ok’d backing the industry!
Just as Princeton Professor Melissa Lacewell-Harris stated on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show last night, these guys have a credibility problem.
The federal debt is indeed a serious issue, but ultimately, even the dumbest teabagger in congress will see that there is no choice but to raise the debt or risk global financial complications on a massive scale.
Yet, all the talk on cable news programs are mainly focusing on the S&P report that they are concerned about the political divide regarding the debt.
As far as I’m concerned, this is just another political ploy not unlike their 2007 and 2008 AAA ratings to support the mortgage industry debacle.
The Nation
The financial services company Standard & Poor’s lowered its outlook on the US federal debt yesterday, but as Nation contributor Melissa Harris-Perry said on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell last night, we should take this news with a grain of salt. The S&P has a real credibility problem because, back in 2007 and 2008, the company was giving AAA ratings to the mortgage industry as the economy was completely collapsing.
The dilemma now, Harris-Perry says, is that the GOP has completely given up on any plan that could fix America’s financial problems. It’s a “really crazy thing,” she says, that America has a real way it could raise revenues that would not create pains for ordinary Americans, yet Republicans refuse to budge on their platform. Tax deductions for corporations could be eliminated. But, the GOP would rather protect corporations instead of working to save the social safety net in America.
See video: How the GOP Continues to Get it Wrong on the Deficit | The Nation
Related Articles
- The Standard is now Poor! (smacktalkradio.wordpress.com)
- “US Receives Debt Warning from Standard & Poors: The Debt Crisis Begins Sooner Than Expected” and related posts (politicsofthecrossresurrected.blogspot.com)
- Republican answer to S&P warning on political gridlock: More gridlock (dailykos.com)
- S&P Debt Warning: It’s A Good Thing (powerlineblog.com)
- Standard & Poor’s Places ‘Negative’ Outlook on the US AAA Credit Rating – Bloomberg (news.google.com)
- US credit rating outlook lowered to ‘negative’ by Standard & Poor’s – Los Angeles Times (news.google.com)
- Standard & Poor’s Lowers U.S. Public Debt Outlook To “Negative” (outsidethebeltway.com)
- Does S&P Action On US Debt Pressure Congress? (247wallst.com)
I must be one of the dumb people you refer to. We have a huge crisis on our hands that can only be solved by lowering our spending. This means ending the three wars, ending subsidies for companies and farmers, and ending MOST social programs, and dramatically reducing the size of the Federal goverment.