National Review: Obama Makes History (of Our AAA Credit)

Finally think Obama has hit an all time low with his surrogates starting with Axelrod who are blaming the Tea Party for the downgrade.  It makes you go, what was that?  That is one of the lamest statements I have ever heard in all the years around politics.  What next?  It is Texas fault?   Obama and the Democrats are taking no blame for their overspending whatsoever as they look to place blame elsewhere.  This is totally irresponsible out of Obama and the Democrats but frankly we think it is going to get worse as they try to throw dirt at any and all expecting it to stick.  This paragraph from National Review's editorial sums it up:

The main obstacle to reform is the gentleman who lives at at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and his legislative enablers down the street. (my bold) Recall: Though Democrats controlled the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives from 2008–10, and therefore could have forced through any budget they saw fit, they left the nation with no budget at all — much less a reformed or balanced one — never bothering to pass one in the year before they lost their House majority. Though congressional Democrats could not be bothered, President Obama did submit a 2011 budget. It contained $0.00 toward entitlement reform. He soon disavowed his own budget proposal. The president later gave a speech in which he said he’d like to see $4 trillion in deficit-reduction, but submitted no budget or other legislation to accompany that rhetoric. The head of the Congressional Budget Office, a Democrat, was moved to observe dryly that his agency “does not score speeches.”

The truth about Obama and the Democrats in one short paragraph.  Their lack of budget for over two years has caught up with them even though they try to deflect to it is always someone else's fault.  This time the lack of a budget lies direct at the feet of Obama and the Democrats who for two years had complete control of the Federal Government and for two years before that had total control of Congress.  That's why the FAA has been part of continuing resolutions since the fall of 2007 -- no budgets from the Democrats.  Are they afraid to do a budget and we can see how much their boondoggles are really costing the US taxpayer which led to this huge deficit increase under the Democrats?   This last time Obama submitted a budget and then took it back but he has a plan he keeps touting that no one sees.  Guess his could wave his magic wand and make one appear.

This editorial nails Obama and the Democrats for the downgrade.  Still boggled that Obama surrogates are blaming the Tea Party who wants more cuts not less.  There are a lot of words that come to mind the first one being 'stupid' and the second one being 'dumb' which describes how the Obama Administration has handled the economy.  All of a sudden Obama holds a cabinet meeting this morning -- not impressed when he hardly holds any cabinet meetings.

August 8, 2011 4:00 A.M.Obama Makes History (of Our AAA Credit)
The Obama administration and congressional Democrats are betting their political futures on the hope that the American electorate is ignorant and forgetful, and hence the memo has gone out to functionaries hither and yon, from David Axelrod to John Kerry: This is to be called the “tea-party downgrade.” That this is said with straight faces bespeaks either an unshakable contempt for the mind of the American voter or an as-yet unplumbed capacity for Democratic self-delusion. 

Let us revisit the facts. The original debt-ceiling deal put forward by the Democrats totaled $0.00 in debt reduction. This would have fallen approximately $4 trillion short of the $4 trillion in debt reduction the credit-rating agencies suggested would constitute a “credible” step toward maintaining our AAA rating and avoiding a downgrade. This $0.00 program was the so-called “clean” debt-ceiling bill — the one that contained not a farthing of debt reduction. Bad as it was, Republicans agreed to give Democrats a vote on it. Some 82 Democrats and every Republican voted against it, and for good reason: Doing nothing at all is hardly a “credible” program. 

The Democrats have suggested that Republicans’ refusal to accede to tax hikes is the main reason Standard & Poor’s felt it necessary to issue a downgrade, the first in American history, last Friday evening. In their assessment of Standard & Poor’s reasoning, the Democrats are acutely at odds with Standard & Poor’s. The credit-rating agency did not call for tax hikes in its assessment: “Standard & Poor’s takes no position on the mix of spending and revenue measures that Congress and the Administration might conclude is appropriate for putting the U.S.’s finances on a sustainable footing.” No position on tax hikes. But S&P, along with the other credit-rating agencies, has long taken a position on one aspect of our fiscal troubles: entitlement reform. From S&P again: “The plan envisions only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability.” 

As anybody who has looked at our long-term deficit projections knows, entitlement spending is the major driver of our future deficits. With unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare already running into trillions of dollars — many multiples of our GDP — it is implausible that taxes would be raised sufficiently to meet those obligations. Sustaining present spending levels over coming decades while maintaining current levels of debt would mean nearly doubling every federal tax: income, payroll, inheritance, excises, etc. To repeat: That’s to maintain current debt levels, not to reduce them. Even if the political will existed to inflict such tax increases on the American people, doing so would prove economically ruinous. Entitlement reform, then — not taxes, not President Obama’s fictitious “balanced approach” — is rightly understood, as S&P argues, as the “key to long-term fiscal sustainability.” Tea-party leaders, far from being a barrier to entitlement reform, have demanded it. 

Excerpt:  National Review Editorial

Looking at the Bloomberg scroll for stocks is showing all red arrow pointing down.  Have been watching for three minutes and have not seen one green arrow yet for stocks.  Crude Oil is down to $81.71 so may there is a silver lining yet for gas prices but not holding my breath.  Most commodities are down except for  gold, and silver.   How low will the markets go this week?  Right now the so-called 'experts' from the Ivy League Business schools are all over the place.  Treasuries are up today if you count 5 cents while stocks are down especially in the financial sectors.  In another 35 minutes, the markets will close and then all the talking heads can start in with the spin for the evening.  Wonder who gets the blame tonight?