Is the Tea Party the blame for the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating?

[cityboi]

The cause of the downgrade is not spending in Washington or President Obama's fault. This happened because of congress's bickering over raising the debt limit. The hold outs in congress were congressmen who were elected by the Tea Party and those congressman as well as the Tea Party wanted no compromise. There is blame to go around as to how this was handled but I believe this particular issue was triggered by the Tea Party who's beliefs are "our way or no way". This may be backfiring on the GOP because polls show that the majority of people blame the republicans for this. We could see a number of red congressional seats turn blue in 2012 which may help boost Obama in his re-election efforts

[Neo]

I definitely don't blame Obama for this as he has an uphill battle negotiating with far right leaning politicians.

Not to turn this into a thread of bickering over politics, but I'm growing very tired of the way republicans run or want to run things. Democrats are also getting on my nerves as are politics in general (can't we run a country without having to have sides?), but republicans appear to be causing the majority of issues from where I sit.

[nashbill]

Amusing as I read this, there is a Tea Party Patriot banner ad at the top of the page.

Edit: spelling

[Gard]

Quite frankly, I'm getting quite sick of both parties. It doesn't matter to me who said or did what, the point is it happened and they both FAILED in my book to get it done in a meaningful way. Pointing the finger like a bunch of school children doesn't solve the problem. If this was a company, do you think this blame game would last very long at the expense of the company? Not hardly, as they would all be looking for new jobs shortly after. Look at the many countries out there passing painful austerity measures and getting things done, while our government acting like a bunch of spoiled brats more interested in finding who as at fault as opposed to just getting the job done. One commentator said recently (can't remember who) that maybe the US SHOULDN"T lead the world, because its government obviously can't lead its own country with all the political dysfunction. I'm beginning to believe that they are spot on with that remark. Bottom line: I don't care how you get the job done, but GET IT DONE! There isn't a single politician I approve of right now. The one least at fault though I feel is Obama, who from my point of view, worked really hard to get something meaningful. Congress on the other hand just needs to be fired all together.

[mallguy]

The cause of the downgrade is not spending in Washington or President Obama's fault. This happened because of congress's bickering over raising the debt limit.

If you read the S&P report about the reasons for the downgrade (available at standardandpoors.com), one reason is because of the US debt level being at a certain percentage of GDP, and projections of its increase. High spending and deficits under Obama most certainly did help cause this; if the US had a debt level of 70% or 65% of GDP, where W left it, the downgrade would not have happened. (Shame on W for increasing the debt to that amount, though.)

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_national_debt_chart.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png (see how the debt as a percentage of GDP spiked under Obama- no downgrade would have happened if that spike hadn't occurred)

No Congressional leader or Obama is blameless and yes, the bickering was part of the reason for the downgrade. But if Obama had (1) not racked up such massive deficits and (2) increased the debt limit when the Democrats had control of Congress, when it wouldn't have been a partisan battle, this never would have happened.

The US getting downgraded for the first time since the country has gotten credit ratings is a disaster due to very poor governance, and no political leader in Washington is totally innocent.

[cityboi]

Quite frankly, I'm getting quite sick of both parties. It doesn't matter to me who said or did what, the point is it happened and they both FAILED in my book to get it done in a meaningful way. Pointing the finger like a bunch of school children doesn't solve the problem. If this was a company, do you think this blame game would last very long at the expense of the company? Not hardly, as they would all be looking for new jobs shortly after. Look at the many countries out there passing painful austerity measures and getting things done, while our government acting like a bunch of spoiled brats more interested in finding who as at fault as opposed to just getting the job done. One commentator said recently (can't remember who) that maybe the US SHOULDN"T lead the world, because its government obviously can't lead its own country with all the political dysfunction. I'm beginning to believe that they are spot on with that remark. Bottom line: I don't care how you get the job done, but GET IT DONE! There isn't a single politician I approve of right now. The one least at fault though I feel is Obama, who from my point of view, worked really hard to get something meaningful. Congress on the other hand just needs to be fired all together.

Thats the thing. Obama's hands are tied with the GOP in control of the house. But the democrats in congress made plenty of mistakes. After Obama was elected they took their eye off the ball and put too much focus on healthcare when the focus should have been jobs. The democrats didn't take advantage of their majority control. The problem is the two party system. its not working and needs to be abolished. Lets vote for people not parties. Divided government is not a good thing for America.

[cityboi]

If you read the S&P report about the reasons for the downgrade (available at standardandpoors.com), one reason is because of the US debt level being at a certain percentage of GDP, and projections of its increase. High spending and deficits under Obama most certainly did help cause this; if the US had a debt level of 70% or 65% of GDP, where W left it, the downgrade would not have happened. (Shame on W for increasing the debt to that amount, though.)

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_national_debt_chart.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png (see how the debt as a percentage of GDP spiked under Obama- no downgrade would have happened if that spike hadn't occurred)

No Congressional leader or Obama is blameless and yes, the bickering was part of the reason for the downgrade. But if Obama had (1) not racked up such massive deficits and (2) increased the debt limit when the Democrats had control of Congress, when it wouldn't have been a partisan battle, this never would have happened.

The US getting downgraded for the first time since the country has gotten credit ratings is a disaster due to very poor governance, and no political leader in Washington is totally innocent.

no doubt there has been spending under Obama's administration but most of the debt is from the Bush years. Massive defense spending, tax cuts for the wealthy and little regulation in the financial market ultimately got us into this mess in the first place. But honestly both parties spend spend spend. The GOP spends our tax dollars on defense while the democrats spends our tax dollars on domestic programs.

[sean]

what happens when global capital runs out of global? we'll find out, but my guess is that it is similar to when a ponzi scheme runs out of suckers.

[nashbill]

Wasn't S & P the same company that is partially responsible for the mortgage crisis. Weren't those investments rated AAA by this company. Why is anyone even listening to this company?

[cityboi]

Wasn't S & P the same company that is partially responsible for the mortgage crisis. Weren't those investments rated AAA by this company. Why is anyone even listening to this company?

you do have a point. But their decision carries some weight because it caused havoc in the stock market. I do smell politics behind their decision because it was based on inaccurate figures.

[cloudship]

And there is the giant elephant sitting in the room. The downgrade has nothing to do with finical figures. There is no specific mathematical formula to the credit rating - we have not even gotten a truly straight answer from standards and poor about how they made this judgement. The real cause here isn't that we have a financial industry that has such intimate control over our economy, but which is unregulated. Listening to their arguments alone only proves that their rating is based on their political views, whether they fit precisely with the right, left, or a bit of both.

and that is why I am so scared. I think credit ratings themselves are relatively unimportant outside of some short term impacts. But this signals that our financial industry is now more in control of our country than our government.

[mallguy]

Actually we have been given extensive reports by Standard & Poor's showing how it made its judgment. Go to http://www.standardandpoors.com and there are 2 main sections on the right hand side of the page: the initial report explaining the reasons for the downgrade and some updates.

"...most of the debt is from the Bush years. "

Not correct. US public debt when W took office was just under $6 trillion; when he left office, it was just under $10 trillion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Federal_debt_to_GDP_-_2000_to_2010.png

[Allison Slater]

How much did the bank bailouts at the end of his term reflect on Bush's term, and how much did it reflect onto Obama's term? What of expenditures initiated by Bush that did not really go into much effect until Obama's term?