[CNBC] S&P contacts White House to notify about a downgrade coming

This is why I wasn't thrilled about the Bush tax cuts. I'm not sure what the politics were at the time and perhaps it was a choice between tax cuts and more spending. But in hindsight, we could have just let the surplus ride for several years.

 

I will, but I am not sure what difference it will make. S&P directly says the 'key to finical stability is entitlement reform specifically Medicare'. Democrats refused any entitlement reform (Obama has never mentioned any entitlement reform he will consider). Tea Party demands entitlement reform. It seems pretty clear.

 

that's the thing... at no point in the history of ceiling increases was there a bare-knuckle, eyes-wide-shut caucus that threatened to shut down the system. the ability to manufacture this hysteria is what s&p is afraid of. if american politics can't marginalize these radical ideas, then the future is unpredictable. unpredictability represents risk. and there you have it.

 

"a" key. not "the" key.

re-read the part about their concern about the republican refusal to consider the revenue stream.

and another comment - if you don't think "revenue" means "tax increases", then pray tell - what else could it mean?

 

I would like to thank the Republicrats, The Federal Reserve, and Keynes for the unsustainable and purely idealistic system we have today. It's been almost 100 years since the formation of system (1913: Federal Reserve Act) and where are we now? In the land of bubbles, that's where. Our money isn't even paper anymore, it's a few bytes on a computer.

And we have people still defending the system, still clinging to Keynesianism like a baby to a teet, simply trying to blame one party or the other for the eventual disaster. As if it was only recently that our economy showed serious signs of upcoming trouble. As if everything was peachy keen until 2007. It's pathetic really. And it saddens me.

 

eric cantor double downs and says still don't compromise.

 

fixing the private sector would increase revenue without raising taxes -

S&P - "In our view, the difficulty in
framing a consensus on fiscal policy weakens the government's ability to
manage public finances and diverts attention from the debate over how to
achieve more balanced and dynamic economic growth in an era of fiscal
stringency and private-sector deleveraging"

 

Why don't the Democrats compromise and put some reforms to Medicare on the table. Something S&P specifically says they want.

 

Obama specifically has talked about entitlement reform going back to January 2009 when he came into office. He's the one that proposed the "grand bargain" that included both entitlement reform and tax increases - which the GOP walked away from due to their "no tax increase" pledge. And he endorsed the Gang of Six proposal which included specific Medicare and SS reforms.

 

Obama has never put entitlement reform in any budget proposal.

 

Did you even pay attention at all over the last month?

 

And yet he endorsed the Gang of Six proposal as the mechanism to deal with the debt issue. You don't reform entitlements in a global budget proposal - it's too big a change so you have to specifically deal with that one issue. When you do it in a budget, you get what happened to Paul Ryan: nothing.

 

oh please

 

Ummm, let's see. Obama offers to reform Medicare in exchange for tax cuts in the "Grand Bargain". GOP says "no tax hikes under any circumstance." This is documented public record.

You then say:

1. Obama never offered to reform Medicare.
2. Obama should be the one compromising.

You are either stupid, simply don't pay attention, or are a partisan hack who makes up his own facts.

 

What reform? How was he going to cut costs? the Gang of Six bill proposed punting the issue to a finance committee. That is not reform.

 

of course the idiot didn't

 

how do you "fix the private sector?"

if you are the government, and you "fix the private sector" - then you're no longer living the US, you're now China. government's only tool is to legislate (no dice... look what happened to glass-steagall), or inject via stimulus... which is again hotly debated by the myopic right.

 

You fix it by not hindering it.

 

That's rich. Our lack of regulation and oversight is what lead to people slicing bad mortgages into bonds and sold them with AAA ratings.

Your solutions are obviously wrong.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act

go get you some knowledge... when you're done, feel free to edit your posts. we'll find someone to screencap them and repost them for you in their unedited glory.