The Tea Party Had It Right
At the Hot Air blog today, Ed Morrissey asks, “What caused the United States to lose its AAA rating for the first time in 94 years, a rating that withstood two world wars, the Great Depression and (most of) the Great Recession, and a costly military buildup that bankrupted and demolished our Cold War foe, the Soviet Union, without a direct shot fired?” (For more on S&P's downgrade of America's AAA credit rating, see yesterday's Growls.)
Morrissey goes on to cite a report by Reuters that discusses the appearance of David Beers, head of S&P’s sovereign ratings on Fox News Sunday. According to Reuters:
“Beers called the U.S. Treasury Department's criticism of the credit rating agency's analysis a "complete misrepresentation." Even with the debt limit agreement passed by Congress, he said, "the underlying debt burden of the U.S. is rising and will continue to rise over the next decade."
Morrissey then makes the following extremely astute observation:
“Actually, the Tea Party caucus in Congress had it right. The bond raters needed to see the US take a significant step towards ending deficit spending and getting future liabilities under control. The problem with the lack of consensus came from the resistance of Democrats to the fiscal realities of the situation we face. Instead of addressing the real problems, Democrats blocked any attempt to deal with the entitlement crises and would only agree to address discretionary spending.” (emphasis added)
Before including the budget chart (see below) from the Heritage Foundation’s 2011 Budget Chart Book, Morrissey asks, “Want to see why it’s the debt and not the taxes, Tea Party, or Congressional tiddlywinks?
Heritage’s Description of Chart:“If the average historical level of tax revenue is extended, spending on Medicare, Medicaid and the Obamacare subsidy program, and Social Security will consume all revenues by 2049. Because entitlement spending is funded on autopilot, no revenue will be left to pay for other government spending, including constitutional functions such as defense.”
Entitlements Will Consume All Tax Revenues by 2049
UPDATE (8/7/11): At Townhall.com today, Helen Whalen Cohen suggests the next "meme" is very likely to be "Tea Party downgrade." Breitbart's Big Government has the video of Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) spewing it forth on Meet the Press.