August 8, 2011
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Downgraded
So -- Standard and Poors has become the first of the major lenders to officially downgrade the United States from its AAA to a AA credit rating. No doubt others will shortly follow. For the first time in its history, America is something less than a first rank debtor.
This will have an effect on the interest lenders will want to charge us for use of their money. And the additional interest we will have to pay, will probably be enough to wipe out any benefit of the recently negotiated spending cuts negotiated by Congress and The White House.
I don't know what the complete impact will finally end up being, but of one thing I am certain. This downgrading of our credit worthiness will all but guarantee that Barack Obama will go down in history as one of if not the most fiscally irresponsible presidents this nation has ever had.
Oh Well! That's what happens when people elect a pretty voice to office. He sounds good, has a great story, and good patter to go along with it, but he doesn't have any idea what he is doing, or the experience to get us out of this mess.
Comments (5)
Exactly what did Obama do, other than inherit a fiscal mess and depend on the good sense of congress to help him solve it? Hmmm, I suppose his naivety is enough to discredit him. any president who depends on the good sense of congress doesn't deserve re-election
@tychecat - What did he do? That's a good question. And the answer is: He did nothing except spend money the nation doesn't have. He said during his campaign that he would reduce the nation's debt during his first year in office. Instead, he raised the nation's debt by almost 4 trillion dollars.
The man is in love with speech making and fundraising, and that is all he's capable of doing. If he had the good sense to at least stand up and say that he was calling Harry Reed and John Banner and asking them to return to Washington so the three of them could sit down and figure this thing out, that would have been more than he's done so far during his whole time in office. He couldn't even think of doing that much.
While I'm sure your comment about re-election was meant in jest, I would make the same comment in earnest: He doesn't deserve re-election! I am certain that you will see the biggest Democratic defeat next year since Jimmy Carter. Time to take the blinders off my friend and see the light of day.
I've been watching Perry's (TX governor) campaign start - he reminds me a lot of Reagan and will probably rise to the front of the pack fairly rapidly. He is a politician's politician - all soundbite hat and no strategy cattle - but may well win. If so we are in for another "Reagan Ride". Hopefully he will be as lucks a Ronnie was - and not as senile.
Obama's main problem seems to be that he is a fairly reasonable and thoughtful person who expected more support of congress [both parties] than he got, and less prejudice then he has so far received. It's been a long time since we have seen so much vitriolic hatred so openly expressed.
@tychecat - I don't see any prejudice or vitriolic hatred toward Obama. What I see is a lot of people who don't like his policies and the direction his administration has taken this country in. When he ignores the will of 78% of the people and forces a health plan that they don't want down their throats and at a cost that the country can't afford, he shouldn't be surprised when those people start to rant and roar for a change in direction. Yet he continues to ignore the people he is elected to serve.
Let's face it, he has irratated most of the people in this country. He can not go around the world bowing down to foreign leaders and expect people to like it. He can not openly declare that America has sometimes behaved badly, even if it is true. He can not irritate all our traditional allies and expect them to like and support him. He can not abrogate military agreements made by his predicesors and expect our friends abroad to appreciate it. He can not do all these things and expect to have friends at home.
All he has done is demonstrate to the world that he is weak and doesn't know what he is doing. And while I may think he's a nice guy as an individual, if ever a man needed to be defeated in the coming election, it is Brack Obama. That feeling has nothing at all to do with hatred or prejudice, by me or by members of Congress that fight against him and his policies.
I don't, obviously, see things quite as you do
My main grumble about Obama is not his direction of leadership, but rather the lack of clear leadership in important areas. He hasn't taken the country anywhere - just been ineffectual in digging us out of the mess Bush left us in.
I just finished reading a study showing that US MDs spend almost four times as much on administrative collection costs as Canadian MDs do - the result of having to deal with multiple insurance providers rather than a single-payer system. Obama had the chance to move toward that - with lower costs to us and everybody - and better health care for most americans, but he settled for ObamaCare with its modest improvements in a just a few areas - maybe that's why some of us are not satisfied. Since we spend over twice as much for our sub-standard health care as the next most expensive nation, I think we have a right to grumble.
If Obama is defeated in 2012, it will be because Americans tend to blame those in power during times of economic distress. He tried the classic move out of depression - government stimulus - but too little and somewhat misdirected. Historically this has been our way out. In 1933, FDR put pretty massive stimulus expenditures in place and in '36 decided to cut back and worry about the debt. The depression promptly re-started. I know, I was there. The depression was finally ended by our massive government expenditures for World War II. Our high tax rates contributed to our post-war prosperity - especially for the richest among us. Ask Warren Buffet if you don't believe me. If we want to end our present depression quickly, the government will have to lead the way and decreasing the debt has nothing to do with it.
The Republicans are going to aim their presidential campaign at the 85 % who are currently employed and to hell with the unemployed, the old, and the infirm.
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