Tea Party intransigence on taxes is not the reason for Obama’s failure to cut spending. It is his excuse.
By Patrick J. Buchanan
The decision by Standard & Poor’s to strip the United States of its AAA credit rating, for the first time, has triggered a barrage of catcalls against the umpire from the press box and Obamaites.
S&P, we are reminded, was giving A ratings to banks like Lehman Brothers, whose books were stuffed with suspect subprime paper, right up to the day Lehman Brothers fell over dead.
Moreover, S&P made a $2 trillion error in its assessment of U.S. debt and used political criteria in making its downgrade.
All of which may be true. But none of which is relevant.This downgrade is deeply deserved. For no one really believes the United States is going to pay its creditors back the $14 trillion it owes them, or the $21 trillion it will owe them at decade’s end, with dollars of the same value as those that the United States is borrowing today.
In the last year alone, the U.S. dollar has lost 30 percent of its value against the Swiss franc.