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America's debt downgrade is a damning indictment of President Obama's Big Government disaster
The Telegraph ^ | Aug 6, 2011 | Nile Gardiner

Posted on 08/06/2011 2:16:45 PM PDT by Clairity

The decision by credit agency Standard and Poor’s to downgrade America’s AAA credit rating for the first time in 70 years is a massive blow to the credibility of the Obama administration, and a damning indictment of its handling of the economy. No doubt the White House will pathetically try to blame the Bush Administration, Republicans in Congress, and of course its favourite target, the Tea Party, for the move by S&P.

But without a shadow of a doubt, responsibility for the country’s financial mess and staggering levels of debt lie with the current US president and his administration. They have been in charge of running the economy for over 30 months, during which time the United States has witnessed an unprecedented increase in government spending and borrowing.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aa; aaa; aaplus; barackalypsenow; bhofascism; biggovernment; creditrating; cutcapbalance; debt; debtceiling; debtlimit; democrats; downgrade; elections; geithner; government; obama; obamageddon; ratings; spending; standardpoors; treasury; triplea
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To: 4woodenboats

check your freepmail


81 posted on 08/06/2011 8:58:42 PM PDT by Baynative (If the government was in charge of the desert , we'd soon have a shortage of sand.)
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To: Clairity

That first big spike in 2009 is from a budget that had George W. Bush's signature on it.

82 posted on 08/06/2011 9:03:07 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: eyedigress

” You let me know when Congress can pass executive orders.”

Let me know when Congress does anything about it

Boner ....uuuuuurp


83 posted on 08/06/2011 9:49:25 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
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To: stephenjohnbanker

About what.


84 posted on 08/06/2011 10:01:58 PM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: Clairity

...Obama, Congress, MSM. One big disgrace...


85 posted on 08/06/2011 11:09:23 PM PDT by gargoyle (...This looks like a good fight, deal me in...)
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To: Oceander

If you’d be so kind as to elucidate, as your point sailed right past me. Unless you are suggesting I believe that’s what we actually HAVE now, which I do not. It’s the goal toward which I strive, as every Conservative should. No more fedgov than what the Constitution permits. And whilst we’re at it, the States are getting more than a bit out of hand, as well.


86 posted on 08/06/2011 11:20:58 PM PDT by dcwusmc (A FREE People have no sovereign save Almighty GOD!!! III OK We are EVERYWHERE)
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“I uhhhh, uhhh... ya’ kno... I uhhh inherited the downgrade... that’s right... lipstick on a pig, dead fish, and all that...”.


87 posted on 08/06/2011 11:25:56 PM PDT by Gene Eric (May our dreams converge for a free and prosperous nation.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego
Already Democrats are saying that the Tea Party is at fault......

For not raising taxes.

They're having a cow. Saying that it should be obvious that Congress should have raised taxes (by bulldozing the Bush tax cuts and jacking up AMT). Because it isn't, of course, obvious.

The 'Rats got the "spend spend" part, but the Tea Party took away their "tax tax" -- leading to a certain frailty about the proposition "elect elect" ('Rats). So they're having a cow.

The bad news is that Boehner went for the lie about conforming the compromise solution with "existing law" (i.e. the Bush tax cuts don't get extended again -- ergo, a big increase in taxes). So he really weaseled, and gave Obozo a big chunk of what he wanted, but off the record. (The 'Rat papers sure aren't talking about it, have you noticed?)

Primary Speaker Boehner.

88 posted on 08/07/2011 2:44:41 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus (Concealed carry is a pro-life position.)
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To: Moonman62
That first big spike in 2009 is from a budget that had George W. Bush's signature on it.

AFAIC, that spike was Hank the Shank's and Helicopter Ben's work -- remember the "panic" bailout bill? The one we absolutely, positively had to pass overnight, for a zillion damned dollars or the whole world is going to hell?

We basically cut a huge check to four or five Wall Street investment banks, and they bailed out their buddies. They ripped us off.

89 posted on 08/07/2011 2:49:17 AM PDT by lentulusgracchus (Concealed carry is a pro-life position.)
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To: Senator_Blutarski
The most significant long term problem we face is a decline in the strength of the private sector of our economy. This problem has many fathers, including an inadequate public education system, an immigration system that looks the other way while we are inundated by unskilled labor from the Third World but requires foreign graduate students with talents and entreprenurial urges we need to return to their own countries upon graduation, self-interested zealotry in the environmental movement both within government and the major environmental advocacy groups, a criminal justice system overwhelmed by the products of a war on drugs that we are unlikely to win, a federal government in which progams once they are enacted never die or even shrink, a welfare system that incentivizes sloth and irresponsibility, the most progressive income tax in the developed world, pro-union policies being followed by the current administration, and a corporate income tax which is among the highest in the world and discourages the repatriation of foreign profits and foreign direct investment.

Increasing the progressivity of our income taxes would exacerbate this problem by reducing even further the private capital needed to rebuild the private sector of our economy. To do so in the name of fairness when 47% of our citizens pay no income tax and the upper three deciles pay income tax far in excess of their share of national adjusted gross income would be Orwellian.

While neither major political party should escape blame for the evisceration of our economy, the Democrats have been responsible for most of the carnage. They are the ones who support the expansion of the welfare state and oppose its reformation, who advocate for an even more progressive personal income tax system, who oppose tort reform for the further enrichment of their trial lawyer supporters, who oppose reform and reduction of corporate taxes, who support teachers' unions to the detriment of students, and who constantly burden our economy with ever more stringent and unproductive environmental policies.

Obama is merely the most extreme of the Democrats who hold national office. The more significant source of their power is in Congress. Therefore, to truly measure the most recent effects of their policies, it is misleading to simply compare the economy today with the economy in the last year of the Bush administration. You really should be comparing 2011 with 2006, the year which preceded the Pelosi Speakership. In fiscal 2006 federal outlays were approximately $2.655 trillion and constituted 20.1% of gross domestic product. In fiscal 2011, after four years of Democrat control of Congress (and one year of joint control) and more than two and one-half years of the Obama Presidency, annual outlays by the federal government will have increased by approximately $1.164 trillion, or 43.8%, to $3.819 trillion, and they will constitute 25.3% of gross domestic product.

On December 31, 2006, the outstanding public debt of the United States was $8.68 trillion, and annual deficits were declining. The Pelosi Congress and the Obama administration reversed that trend. By June 30, 2011, the outstanding public debt of the United States had increased by 65% to $14.343 trillion. Rememeber that the next time you hear a Democrat say that we must increase tax rates on those who start and invest in new companies in the private sector to solve our deficit spending: annual federal outlays increased more than 43%, and our national debt increased 65%, while they controlled Congress.

To solve our current economic malaise and to assure that our children will have a productive future, we must revitalize the private sector of our economy. That will not happen while Obama and the rest of the Democrats retain significant power in Washington.

90 posted on 08/07/2011 6:11:32 AM PDT by p. henry
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To: Clairity

The media gave birth to Obama. They will NEVER disown him.


91 posted on 08/07/2011 6:38:27 AM PDT by teletech (Say NO to RINOS!)
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To: lentulusgracchus
AFAIC, that spike was Hank the Shank's and Helicopter Ben's work -- remember the "panic" bailout bill? The one we absolutely, positively had to pass overnight, for a zillion damned dollars or the whole world is going to hell?

One should consider this quote by W:

"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system"

92 posted on 08/07/2011 10:30:47 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: dcwusmc

My apologies if I misread the post of yours to which I responded. As I read that post, it did appear that you were implying that the federal government is perfectly hunk-dory just as it is right now. If that was not what you were saying, then I apologize for having drawn the wrong inferences.


93 posted on 08/07/2011 7:01:02 PM PDT by Oceander (The phrase "good enough for government work" is not meant as a compliment)
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To: Oceander

Apology accepted. Yes, you HAD misread me, but now you know better. No problem! What I WANT is a vastly smaller, Constitution-sized government (and barely bigger at State and local levels!!)


94 posted on 08/10/2011 6:04:27 PM PDT by dcwusmc (A FREE People have no sovereign save Almighty GOD!!! III OK We are EVERYWHERE)
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To: dcwusmc

No worries; thanks for a good argument, even though we really are on the same side of the issue. And thanks for having the patience to stick it through until I realized that.


95 posted on 08/12/2011 6:34:55 AM PDT by Oceander (The phrase "good enough for government work" is not meant as a compliment)
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