Much of the reaction to Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating focused on the “dysfunction” of the U.S. political process. And, certainly, S&P (which, let’s not forget, contributed to the 2008 financial crisis by failing to downgrade bad mortgage debt) invited such analysis by citing “the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate.”
Yes, the confrontation over raising the debt ceiling was ugly, but not nearly as ugly as the underlying policies that are carrying us to the brink of insolvency. This focus on the contentiousness of the debate, rather than on debt, is dangerous and obtuse. It’s reminiscent of those liberals who during the Cold War were more upset about someone being called a Communist than about someone actually being a Communist. Standard and Poor’s may have been right for the wrong reasons. The real reason for doubt about our future capacity to pay our debts is that one of our two political parties is totally wedded to the social-democrat agenda that is, even as we speak, bringing Europe down.
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