The Debt Dance

Am I the only one who wants to chuckle about the reaction to S&P downgrading the federal government's credit rating?

To be sure, there is nothing funny about the government creating a financial quagmire and saddling future generations with the consequences. But there is something amusing about its (and the media's) "shoot the messenger" response now that the chickens have come home to roost.

Anybody with an ounce of knowledge and sense has known for some time that the government deserved to have its credit rating downgraded. For years, under many different administrations, it has been borrowing way too much in order to spend way too much, and wary observers have been warning that a day of reckoning was inevitable. But under Barack Obama the situation escalated like a nuclear reaction, because under him the government has operated at larger deficits than under all previous administrations combined. Even George W. Bush looks like a tightwad compared to the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

As the debt ceiling talks played out in previous weeks, the only time Democrats or the MSM mentioned the possibility of a credit rating downgrade was when they said one would happen if Republicans in general -- and "Tea Party Republicans" in particular -- refused to raise the debt ceiling. Specifically, they claimed that if the ceiling was not raised by August 2nd, the government would go into default on its debt payments, Grandma would not get her Social Security check, and as a result the government's credit rating might go down.

They echoed this meme loudly and incessantly, even though they knew the government had more than enough cash on hand to keep making debt payments and entitlement payments for several months after Obama's arbitrary August 2nd deadline. And, crucially, they kept echoing the meme in spite of the fact that S&P issued a statement declaring that a downgrade could be triggered not only by a default, but could happen anyway "unless substantial and credible agreement is achieved on a budget that includes long-term deficit reduction."

The only people at the table who made any proposals for "long-term deficit reduction" were "Tea Party Republicans," and the plan that eventually passed ignored all of their suggestions while still raising the ceiling...so in hindsight, it is obvious that the tea partiers were the only ones doing anything that could have prevented the downgrade. However, Democrats and the MSM are actually saying the tea partiers caused it! They are even calling it "The Tea Party Downgrade." This is laughable, but unfortunately, it is also deadly serious because the whole purpose of the propaganda is to get liberals elected in majority numbers. That would ensure that liberals' ruinous policies continue -- a prospect that would place America's future prospects in imminent danger.

Once again, the "takeaways" from this whole spectacle are to ignore the noise from The Left; to comprehend that The Left and the media are one and the same; and to follow what your common sense tells you to be true. And most importantly, to make sure your non-partisan friends don't listen to left-wing sloganeering without hearing the facts.