6:05 pm ET
Aug 8, 2011


Mitt Romney and the Complexities of Debt Ratings

    • What else would you expect from the next coming of the Republican Party?

      First the Treasury asks Congress to raise the debt limit. Then the Republican House says they won't without cuts to government spending. So the Democrats begin negotiations including cuts to their sacredly held social programs and ask for some quid pro quo. It was a 3-1 ratio of cuts versus revenue increases. A deal that Republicans should have been drooling over!

      What happened?

      “One of the biggest hurdles that emerged was the Obama administration’s desire to ensure that Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy Americans would expire at the end of 2012, while making permanent tax cuts for the middle class, said a person familiar with the talks.”

      Tax cuts for the rich protected by the Republican Party!!! That's all they care about!!

      Sounds like Obama's leadership was fine.

      Everyone likes to say both parties are to blame, but in this case, it's just so obvious what this downgrade is about.

      There's a time & place for Budget talks... it's not when the Treasury Secy asks for the debt-ceiling to be raised. You don't put into question making good on your past debt obligations. Past debts have nothing to do with future spending. If I always pay my bills on time, my creditors will leave me alone. But, if I call them up, & tell them I may not be able to pay them, then that opens the door to all types of questions about my creditworthiness, which are only raised because I brought it up.

      That's exactly the same thing the GOP did, by politicizing what's normally an apolitical, bipartisan, housekeeping measure, THEY put into question America's creditworthiness - - even though people are still lining up to purchase our debt (US Treasuries), as evidenced by the upswing in Treasury sales, as the Market tanked a couple of days ago.

      Anyone putting this on Pres Obama, or the Democrats, is just deluding themselves.

      The S & P report (p. 4) puts the blame for this downgrade squarely on the Republicans:


      Why is this not mentioned in the various news reports, including this one? Why are the mainstream media trying to shelter the GOP from the full blame it deserves?

      ...because the media is only as liberal as the giant corporations that own it.

    • When bussinesses are taxed they have to raise the cost of their products and that causes an inflation and an inflation causes a depression. A depression causes a welfare-state which is communism.

    • Thanks, Joy, for the deep thoughts and experimental spelling.

    • Joy please study something other than propaganda.

    • Hit the books joy.

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