Standard & Poor’s Downgrades US Debt
August 7, 2011
Right off let’s get it straight that this is one of the rating companies that rated Lehman Brothers as solid days before the company went bankrupt and had strong ratings for many of the banks and brokerage houses that went out of business or were merged with other financial institutions in 2008. So, in my mind, I’m not all that sure they should be relied upon.
With that caveat, the reality is that the world’s largest and strongestveconomy and America’s credit rating has just been downgraded. No different than if your credit score just dropped from 875 to 780. What will this mean for us? Well, possibly higher interest rates on car loans, home mortgages, credit cards since US government bonds (our debt) will now cost more to buy. But who knows. These are strange times and the future is a bit murky, to say the least.
But already our Congressional leaders have issued statements basically blaming the other side for S&P’s action. Democrats decried S&P’s flawed mathematics (yeah, that’ll resound with the American public) and, of course, Republican Boehner blamed Obama. But then he seems to blame the President for unwanted pregnancies, global warming and pretty much everything else that the Tea Party doesn’t like.
But, folks, the reality is that the United States Government’s credit rating has been downgraded. And according to the S&P people, they noted the dysfunctional process that produced the deficit reduction legislation as well as Republican intransigence for not including additional revenues in the law. Don’t forget, the whole deficit reduction debacle was a manufactured crisis. Manufactured because the Tea Party, Cantor and Boehner seized an opportunity to shove the Tea Party’s vision of an impoverished America down our throats. (See http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/origins-of-the-debt-showdown/2011/08/03/gIQA9uqIzI_story.html) To say nothing of those of traitorous Republican Representatives and Senators who didn’t have the balls to stand up to them and do what was right for the good of the country.
The effects of S&P’s downgrade? Well, who knows. With China screaming that the US needs to get our economic house in order adding more drama to the equation, and Europe poised for another round of severe cuts and “re-structuring” (Italy and Spain), who knows what the effect will be.
But just in case you missed it, Texas governor Rick Perry held a “response” rally this weekend in Houston gathering God fearing, Jesus loving evangelicals together to pray our way out of our economic crisis. OK. God what to say about this. I welcome any efforts to help the US economy especially since Congress and the Obama Administration don’t seem capable of acting for the good of the country. Or having the balls to take on the Tea Party. On the other hand, I’m just not sure that either God or Jesus has the economic expertise to intercede on our behalf to get people back to work.
But I do have a solution. I am now a firm believer in the upcoming rapture. I look forward to it and the next time some religious fundamentalist predicts the next "cumming", I’m going to pray my ass off to lend my efforts to its fruition. Here’s my theory. If the rapture comes, then all of the religious freaks will be off-loaded to heaven (or to whatever after life “world” they envision as the end game) which will leave the rest of us sinners here on earth. Lonely maybe but still here. But at least this will give us the opportunity to do the work of re- building our country. To right the disastrous policies of the past 30 years. If all of the religious crazies are cast out of the political scene, maybe we can finally do away with all the bullshit crap and jingoist propaganda we’ve been subjected to over the past 30 years and tackle the task of getting America back on its rightful track.
So on the rapture thing, count me in Rick. I’m with you!!!!!
