Coburn on US credit rating downgrade
Press release from Sen. Coburn's office this morning:
U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) released the following statement after Standard & Poor's downgraded the United States' AAA credit rating."This announcement is probably long overdue. For decades, political careerism has trumped statesmanship in Washington. Both parties have done what is safe, not what is right. The dysfunction in Washington is the belief that we can live beyond our means forever. We can't. The moment to make the hard decisions we have long avoided has arrived. There is no where left to kick the can."
RELATED: Michael Carnuccio of OCPA explains why the debt ceiling deal doesn't add up:
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As I commented on 29Jul post, Repubs caved.
Coburn correct. In spades. In dollars and sense.
Some of us believe in absolutes. Eg, "Thou shalt not steal." Gives Alexandrian Sword against Gordonian Knot. Further, only God self sufficient; gov't cannot create by fiat. Know in advance that gov't spending more than receiving *necessarily* runs into disaster.
Greatly appreciate argument (advanced by, eg, Thomas Sowell)that sometimes gotta not fight to bitter end some battle so that will survive to fight another with goal of winning war rather than battle. So maybe wince at Boehner compromise, but gut it out for later.
But that compromise wasn't. Instead it surrendered. Instead of compromise, it denied absolutes. Obama et al understood that. Never presented own plan (recall contra Constitution, btw). Expected opponents to fear (short term result) blame more than abandoning(long term result)principle.
Kudos to Coburn . . . and the rest of the Senate's "Gang of Six". If their and the President's "grand bargain" -- i.e. meaningful deficit reduction through spending cuts AND tax revenues -- had been embraced by the House, we wouldn't have seen this downgrade.
Of course, no industry could have less credibility right now than the major ratings agencies. If a free market were truly functioning in the financial sector, S&P and Moody's would have been driven out of business by their recent performance with subprime mortgage-related securities.