Timothy Geithner 4/19/2011: No Risk U.S. Will Lose AAA Rating
Something tells me that the Treasury Secretary will be asked about this in the coming days:
Something tells me that the Treasury Secretary will be asked about this in the coming days:
There’s nothing wrong with expressing confidence đ
(actually, for him it is a job requirement)
Considering that the S&P made a mistake in their math(and refused to reconsider their decision) along with Fitch/Moody’s keeping the AAA rating, I don’t see what the controversy is.
@Chad S:
While S&P has the right to assign any rating they want, you certainly have the right to reject their analysis, and Geithner has the right to “express confidence” that they are wrong.
But let me explain why the downgrade doesn’t bother me, personally.
First, AA+ is not a low rating. It is Investment Grade and has the shorthand meaning of “Very strong capacity to meet financial commitments.” The downgrade is only from “extremely strong” to “very strong.” We are nowhere near “risky” or “junk.”
Second, the rationale that S&P offers is something I can relate to:
I think that’s actually a paragraph that many OTB columnists can buy into.
The question should be whether that paragraph maps to “extremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments” anymore. Or whether we’ve slipped a bit.
I say heck yeah, and I hope this puts a fire under Washington to do a real fix, before other ratings agencies follow suit.
Can you fathom the reaction among liberal idiots on the Internet and on university campuses if a Republican administration was this numbingly incompetent?! Yikes.
In any event, among Geithner, Holder and Napolitano it’s truly a race to the bottom for the worst cabinet official in history. It’s like watching Peter Sellers play a Keystone Kop after smoking crack. But much worse, of course, since Team Rambobama has vast powers in real life. Scary.
@Tsar Nicholas II:
The amazing thing to me is that we pass Boehner’s debt plan, more or less, and now it’s Obama’s downgrade.
The Tea Parties are children. “You let me do it, so now it’s your fault.”
That pretty much summarizes the current Republican party’s SOP.
And Tsar has bought into hook, line, and sinker.
S&P said that Congress must pass at least $4 trillion in “cuts” over 10 years. The President doesn’t offer a plan, he ignores his own created bipartisan debt Commission, the Democrats block spending “cuts” tooth and nail, and will only concede to only a little over $2 trillion “cuts”. The Democrats are clearly a dysfunctional party and deserve the entire blame for the down grading. The funny thing is that while Democrats talk about the end of the republic as we know it because of the spending “cuts”, the truth is that spending will keep increasing every year and the so called “cuts” are only a reduction in the rate of increase in spending. With $63 trillion in unfunded liabilities owed by the federal government, there is no way in hell that this can problem can be solved with tax increases. Spending will have to be cut, and I mean real cuts, to solve the debt problem. The Tea Party are the only grownups in the room trying to solve the debt problem, while the Democrats stick their heads in the sand, ignore the problem hoping it will go away, and use incendiary language like calling the Tea Party âterroristsâ.
Yes, pushing spending cuts alone with no tax increases is just so “grownup”…
The Democrats were merely confused….the Tea Party crowd aren’t terrorists, but, rather, extortionists…