S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating

Poor Red always asks for a list of cuts.

Sure cut EVERYTHING 10% across the board and then freeze the budget. That would be an easy start.

But he won't talk about that. Just spend and tax.

 

Right. Obama offered a plan that would have amounted to the $4 Trillion in cuts that were needed, but the Tea Party shot it down because it contained $1.2 Trillion in revenue increases.

We cannot cut our way out of this crisis. We are paying the lowest taxes in 60 years and it is hampering our ability to address problems like this.[/QUOTE]

We spent our way into this mess and we will have to cut our way out of it. The credit rating agencies were calling for two things: spending cuts in the amount of $4 trillion and a plan to deal long term with entitlement spending which is what is driving the deficit. Increasing tax rates would not be a very good idea when the economy is so soft. A better idea would be to cut loopholes and subsidies which would raise revenue without raising rates. I suspect we will see some of that when the tax code is reformed.

 

Lobbyists tend to get demonized unfairly. The truth is they provide a needed service to legislators. They provide legislators with a lot of infomation on issues and proposed legislation. However, I do not feel lobby groups should be allowed to draft legislation and their relationship with legislators should be tightly controlled.

 

You are absolutely correct that it is Congress that writes amendments and also votes on the budget. But the President can submit plans which he did. But it was so bad that the Democratically controlled Senate failed to pass it by a vote of 97-0. He did not get even so much as a single vote from his own party. ZIP.

 

I think that this is the moment that the President lost all remaining credibility in the financial discussion. No one took him seriously after this – including his own party. This was an abdication of leadership. Remember this was not an isolated act, this followed a year of failure on budget leadership.

 

+1. And tighly watched. Sunshine laws have a reason for existence, because what we don't know can hurt us.

 

I am getting sick of hearing Republicans pointing fingers at the Democrats and Democrates pointing fingers at the Tea Party. The truth is both parties are to blame. Neither of their plans or the compromise plan did what Wall Street was telling us what needed to be done. The Tea Party was the only group that took a stand that would have avoided our loosing our AAA rating. Hopfully the Super Committee will cut another $3 trillion and reform the tax code so that loopholes and subsidies can be cut and allowing tax rates to be lowered. Those things will avoid a further downgrading of our credit rating, and in fact may be a big factor in getting it upgraded to where it was.

 

At this point I think the finger pointing is to calm the base and set up the debate to come for both sides. And yeh I wish they all would just STFU. A few weeks of silence on the subject would also help work towards a solution. But don't hold your breath waiting for any of these people to shut up, they all have way to high of an opinion of themselves.

I have very little faith in the super committee. It's an old idea that has a high failure rate.

 

I'll agree with that. They can start by limiting entertainment and gift amounts. A $5000 tab at Ruth's Chris to wine and dine Restaurant Association lobbyists is a bit much*

*(From an article about Louisiana Restaurant Inspections in today's Lafayette fishwrap).

 

Neither does Standard and Poors.