They Warned Us

That sounds kind of like the tag line for a bad sci-fi movie which makes it even more unfathomable that we are talking about America's credit rating.  Today, Standard & Poor's warned that there is a 50% chance it will cut America's credit rating in the next 3 months.  This just day two days after Moody's made the same threat.

That doesn't strike me so much as a threat as it does a plea.  Look America, S&P is telling us, you don't have it together, you need to get it together, and we're trying to give you a nudge for your own sake and for the sake of the global economy - FIX IT! A 50% chance in 3 months...they have warned us.

But the warnings are falling on deaf ears.  The Tea Party-led insurgency that has taken over the Republican Party is immune to facts, sense and reality, and now the United States of America finds itself weeks away from defaulting on it's loans. Such a stunning event would not only ravage the American and global economy, but it would undoubtedly significantly undermine America's position as the world's leader and usher in challenges to American authority from all around the globe.

Nevertheless, no warning, no sense, no facts will sway the Tea Party, a group so wrapped up in its own ideological cloak of lunacy that it will see our country bankrupt before it agrees to compromises that are overwhelmingly in its favor.  Just a few weeks ago, Republicans produced a chart - created by a conservative think tank - that showed the best way to decrease a deficit was 85% spending cuts and 15% tax increases.  So when they get that offer from the President what do they do?  Well you know the answer to that.

In a sad and funny way I feel sorry for the Republican establishment.  Not that they really deserve any sympathy since they bear much of the burden for creating this mess, but like poor Victor Frankenstein they have created a monster they cannot control.  The Tea Party has taken over and - like Frankenstein - will strangle the life out of its creator.  Like Dr. Frankenstein, the Republicans will pay dearly in the next election, but unfortunately, before that happens, the nation will suffer just as Frankenstein's family did.

Now, poor Mitch McConnell - for whom I have no respect - finds himself having to make proposals giving President Obama all the power to raise the debt limit just so he can save America from default and save Republicans from having to vote on raising the debt limit.  It is a cheeky political move but at least Mitch knows that default isn't an option.  He isn't interested so much in the American economy as the Republican party, but he knows the effects of a default would be so terrible that Republicans would suffer greatly next year if one were to happen.

And imagine what life must be like for John Boehner - for whom I have slightly growing admiration - who has negotiated cuts that would be considered a massive Republican triumph if they were to be enacted!  The man has managed to cut more in spending cuts then Republicans could have hoped to dream for, more in fact than most Republicans are probably comfortable with given how they will be used as ammunition against the party in the next election.  Nonetheless, if Republicans really believed what they are preaching - they don't - then they would be salivating over this deal.  But no, nothing can sate the bloodlust of the Tea Party.  Oh and have I mentioned that taxes are off the table?

And so the warning shots that Moody's and Standard & Poor's have fired across our bow in the last few days will have no effect.  America is weeks away from default and despite warnings and deals that Ronald Reagan couldn't have dreamed of and would have leapt at in a heartbeat, those carrying his banner have steadfastly refused to blink.

The most ironic part of this is that all of these cuts are done in the name of confidence.  If we cut, cut, cut, American businesses will have the confidence to start investing and hiring.  Aside from the obvious point that there is no math behind this, only a confident belief in confidence, Republicans are doing everything they can to make the nation more jittery.  Every day that we get closer to defaulting we become a little less confident.  And so Tea Party, no only have you held America hostage, but you've done so in the most hypocritical and silly way possible, by undermining your own talking point.