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al Qaeda must be proud of them

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When Bill Clinton left office in 2000, he left us with a roadmap to paying off the U.S. debt by 2009.

George W. Bush came into office and he decided to defer on paying off the debt. He proposed and got huge tax breaks. And we fell back into deficit spending.

Not only that, but Republicans went on an unprecedented spending spree. They started a couple of costly wars without doing the responsible thing and take in new revenues to cover the costs. They massively increased military spending. They passed an unfunded health care reform (the Medicare prescription drug benefit). Essentially, under Bush, Republicans spent like a pack of meth addicts with a pile of stolen credit cards.

By 2008, the Republicans had failed to follow Clinton’s roadmap toward a debt-free U.S. In fact they had added $4 trillion to the national debt. And the economy tanked.

Whether you believe the economic collapse was completely Bushes fault or not, the inability to implement a proper economic recovery was the fault of Republican policies during the Bush years. The $10 trillion debt that George Bush left us with placed severe constraints on, and even foreclosed upon, many possibilities for using our credit for a bold recovery effort.

Under Obama, the Republicans have done almost nothing beneficial for American. Their sole goal has been to obstruct Obama, even when their actions are terrible for America. Most recently, they held us all hostage, taking us to the brink of a debt default.

Republicans, through their recklessness, have failed to be good stewards of our country. They have placed Republican political gain ahead of America.

Today S&P cut the long-term U.S. credit rating by one notch from AAA to AA-plus. S&P cited a lack of faith in the political process as part of their downgrade decision.

Nice job Republicans! You fucked up the debt repayment, you spent us into the ground, you trashed the economy, and now you’ve fucked up the credit rating of the U.S.

al Qaeda must be proud of you!

So…why is it that Republicans are not considered enemies of the United States?

Comments

  2. 2

    In 2009, Democrats had White House, filibuster-proof Senate and supermajority in the House. Why in hell did they not repeal the tax cuts?? They did next to nothing but put us further in debt with a phony stimulus bill where a huge hunk of the money went to state & local governments to pay off the Government Employee Unions and avoid government layoffs.
    When the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, the National Debt was $8.6 TRILLION. In 4 years they passed bills which raised it to $14 Trillion. Bush was a traitor, not a Conservative. Obama is worse. But none of this would have happened in those 4 years had it not been for Pelosi/Reid Democrats.
    Both party’s have failed this country.
    Horseshit from the HorsesAss won’t change the facts. All the so-called Republicans who voted Yes on this phony spending cut re: debt ceiling will be targets in primaries, as will all the Democrats, especially the non-leader who signed it, Obama.

  3. 3

    But I do consider Republicans “enemies of the United States,” and have done so for some time now.

    Heh! Just kidding! That’s an Ann Coulter joke back atcha!

  5. 5

    @2 “Why in hell did they not repeal the tax cuts??”

    I believe you’ll find the answer in this list of “10 Republican Lies About the Bush Tax Cuts” under Lie #1; but if it isn’t there, read the rest of the lies, I’m sure it’s in there somewhere.

    http://crooksandliars.com/jon-.....h-tax-cuts

  6. 6

    daryl, can you explain why, that every person that cnbc, a liberal program, says thats its the trillions obama spent on stimulus’ that caused this problem?

  7. 7

    on the other hand, considering the people who run this country and this world are not the politicians but the wealthy, its not hard to see that they had a hand in the downgrade, because now they get a higher yield on their bonds.

  8. 8

    @2 – Are you on drugs? That would be one explanation for why you don’t seem to remember the HALF MILLION LAYOFFS in the public sector since 2009.
    Nice narrative you got there. Too bad it’s as accurate as a drug-induced hallucination.

  9. 9

    Darryl,
    You’ve made some good points, but I wonder in your haste to post if you’ve accidentally omitted the other side of the story.

    Did you know that Speaker Boehner, the guy who got 98% of what he wanted in the debt ceiling bill, has issued a statement?

    You can go read the thing in its entirety, but I think this is interesting

    “In May, I warned, ‘if we don’t act boldly now, the markets will act for us very soon.’ It is my hope this wake-up call will convince Washington Democrats that they can no longer afford to tinker around the edges of our long-term debt problem. As S&P noted, reforming and preserving our entitlement programs is the ‘key to long-term fiscal sustainability.’

    Which leads to my next question.
    In your rush to post did you not read the secret part of the S&P downgrade where it noted that the problem is that Democrats won’t cut?

  10. 10

    I’ll agree that the current crop is evil and single-minded in its focus on defeating Obama and more than willing to kill America in the process. And as simplistic as it sounds, there is some validity in also blaming the Democrats for their pansy ways. Yeah, I know. The only way to avoid a filibuster was with a super majority. I think they should have let the filibusters happen and shown people that they were willing to stand for….something, anything.

    The Dems behaved and behave like quaking waifs because there was no indication from the White House that there was a position that the Dems could count on. If the Dems weren’t so scared of controversy and if Obama had been less willing to acquiesce at every opportunity, the Republicans may not have not decided it was worth the gamble to play chicken with our lives.

    So I don’t really hold them blameless either. We have a serious, across the board lack of capacity in leadership at every level and it has ruined this country.

  11. 11

    Oh oh #9, the S&P also cited the governing aspect and chided the republicans for using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip. Yeah, sure they cited the deficit but also that avoiding any discussion of revenue as irresponsible and evidence of the capacity of Congress to govern.

    Don’t forget that part.

  12. 12

    Republicans are not the enemy of the United States. They are the enemy of all humanity, and the handful of folks around the planet who survive the mass extinction event being guaranteed by climate change denial will remember them as such. Ratings services will be the least of anyone’s concerns.

  13. 13

    @9 Why should Democrats cut benefits for low-income senior citizens to pay for tax cuts for the rich? And why should Democcrats cut benefits for low-income senior citizen to preserve historically low tax rates for the rich? The problem isn’t Democrats, it’s selfish Republicans; but hey, since Republicans own most of the stocks and bonds, screw the downgrade, they just shot their own balls off.

  14. 14

    @10 Obama and the congressional Democrats will reap the fruits of paying ransom to pirates. Republicans are already talking about what they’re going to hold hostage next.

  15. 15

    Let’s see what financial experts say about it:

    “I really find it quite amazing that a credit agency that could rate mortgage backed securities AAA has decided to downgrade the U.S. government. … I find it to be incredibly troubling from a ratings agency with a very terrible history in the last three years of its ability to quantify risk.”

    “What Moody’s and Fitch have really quietly agreed to do is say, ‘We are going to wait and see what the commission comes up with before a downgrade,’ but S&P went ahead and did it anyway with numbers that were wrong.”

    “If you think about the things they have rated AAA over the past few years, then you think about the U.S. economy with 15 trillion dollars of income every year and it’s never not paid its debt …”

    “In the credit crisis of 2008 and 2009, the ratings agencies were dealing with a credibility issue. The fact that they have now downgraded the United States suggests to me that they are now going to be dealing with a relevance issue, because the fact of the matter is that 10-year (Treasury note) yields are near 2.5 percent, and that in no way suggests a lack of sponsorship for U.S. debt.”

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44.....d_economy/

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Basically what these people are saying is, Why should anyone listen to a ratings agency that graded subprime mortgage debt as Triple-A? Remember this?

    “Negative news flow continues for the U.S credit rating agencies, as a U.S. federal judge rejected the appeal by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) and McGraw-Hill’s (NYSE:MHP) Standard & Poor’s to dismiss the fraud charges brought against them for not disclosing the risks associated with an investment related to subprime mortgages.”

    http://www.dailymarkets.com/st.....n-lawsuit/

    So let me ask you this: Would you take investment advice from someone who’s being sued for giving fraudulent investment advice? Would you hire Bernie Madoff to be your investment adviser?

  17. 17

    S&P? You know, the folks that gave the AAA rating to the junk bonds that caused the economic collapse of 2008

  18. 18

    Hey, I’m not saying the pols did a great job. They didn’t. But democracy is messy, ya know? And it’s not like the capitalist system fosters market stability, or anything like that. Let’s see, there was …

    Panic of 1797
    Recession of 1802-1804
    Depression of 1807
    Recession of 1812
    Depression of 1815-1821
    Recession of 1822-1823
    Recession of 1825-1826
    Recession of 1828-1829
    Recession of 1833-1834
    Recession of 1836-1838
    Depression of 1839-1843
    Recession of 1845-1846
    Recession of 1847-1848
    Recession of 1853-1854
    Panic of 1857
    Recession of 1860-1861
    Recession of 1869-1870
    Panic of 1873
    Depression of 1983-1879
    Recession of 1882-1885
    Recession of 1887-1888
    Recession of 1890-1891
    Panic of 1893
    Panic of 1896
    Recession of 1899-1900
    Recession of 1902-1904
    Panic of 1907
    Panic of 1910-1911
    Recession of 1913-1914
    Recession of 1918-1919
    Depression of 1920-1921
    Recession of 1923-1924
    Great Depression of 1929-1933
    Recession of 1937
    Recession of 1945
    Recession of 1949
    Recession of 1958
    Recession of 1960-1961
    Recession of 1969-1970
    Recession of 1973-1975
    Recession of 1980
    Depression of 1981-1982
    Recession of 1990-1991
    Recession of 2001
    Great Recession of 2007-2009

    So — does any sentient being here fail to notice how FREQUENT panics, recessions, and depressions were, before the era of the Federal Reserve and government regulation of banking and the SEC and so on? Sure, we still have recessions, but do you notice how the FREQUENCY and DEPTH of economic calamities tapered off, after the notion of activist government economic intervention was invented?

    So, my question is, why would anyone vote for people who think government sucks, and who want to take us back to the 19th century? What the fuck was so great about the 19th fucking century??? Why would anyone want to live through that again?!! You know what, life in the 19th century wasn’t great at all, it really sucked, which is why I don’t understand the people who want to shove the 19th-century lifestyle down our throats.

    I sure as hell won’t vote for them.

  19. 19

    I wouldn’t put too much stock in what the rating companies say. After all, they are the ones who were giving good ratings to all those toxic investment vehicles that helped to bring us down.
    Those ****tards really don’t know their asses from their elbows.

    A few dollars in the right hands will fix this ‘credit rating’ problem lickety-split.

  20. 20

    Over at Washington Monthly Steve Benen offers this Time Line of Events

    Let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

    1980: Ronald Reagan runs for president, promising a balanced budget

    1981 – 1989: With support from congressional Republicans, Reagan runs enormous deficits, adds $2 trillion to the debt.

    1993: Bill Clinton passes economic plan that lowers deficit, gets zero votes from congressional Republicans.

    1998: U.S. deficit disappears for the first time in three decades. Debt clock is unplugged.

    2000: George W. Bush runs for president, promising to maintain a balanced budget.

    2001: CBO shows the United States is on track to pay off the entirety of its national debt within a decade.

    2001 – 2009    : With support from congressional Republicans, Bush runs enormous deficits, adds nearly $5 trillion to the debt.

    2002: Dick Cheney declares, “Deficits don’t matter.” Congressional Republicans agree, approving tax cuts, two wars, and Medicare expansion without even trying to pay for them.

    2009: Barack Obama inherits $1.3 trillion deficit from Bush; Republicans immediately condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.

    2009: Congressional Democrats unveil several domestic policy initiatives — including health care reform, cap and trade, DREAM Act — which would lower the deficit. GOP opposes all of them, while continuing to push for deficit reduction.

    September 2010    : In Obama’s first fiscal year, the deficit shrinks by $122 billion. Republicans again condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.

    October 2010    : S&P endorses the nation’s AAA rating with a stable outlook, saying the United States looks to be in solid fiscal shape for the foreseeable future.

    November 2010: Republicans win a U.S. House majority, citing the need for fiscal responsibility.

    December 2010    : Congressional Republicans demand extension of Bush tax cuts, relying entirely on deficit financing. GOP continues to accuse Obama of fiscal irresponsibility.

    March 2011: Congressional Republicans declare intention to hold full faith and credit of the United States hostage — a move without precedent in American history — until massive debt-reduction plan is approved.

    July 2011: Obama offers Republicans a $4 trillion debt-reduction deal. GOP refuses, pushes debt-ceiling standoff until the last possible day, rattling international markets.

    August 2011: S&P downgrades U.S. debt, citing GOP refusal to consider new revenues. Republicans rejoice and blame Obama for fiscal irresponsibility.

    There have been several instances since the mid 1990s in which I genuinely believed Republican politics couldn’t possibly get more blisteringly ridiculous. I was wrong; they just keep getting worse.

  21. 21

    Remember when Ronaldus Magnus led us to fiscal responsibility? Me neither!

    Bye Bye, Balanced Budget (Monday, Nov. 16, 1981)

    Last week Reagan moved toward a difficult decision: he would not keep his pledge to balance the budget, but would hold firm to his 1982 tax cuts and permit only limited tax hikes later. At the same time, he would ask an increasingly rebellious Congress to enact even more horrendous future slashes in spending.

    That, at least, was the President’s clear inclination as he and top economic advisers held a series of argumentative meetings throughout the week. Republican leaders in both the Senate and the House, called to separate gatherings at the White House on Friday morning, expected Reagan to reveal his decision then. Instead he mainly let them air their own views, which conflicted sharply. The Senators urged Reagan to go along with Stockman and hold down budget deficits by supporting heavy tax increases in 1983 and 1984. The G.O.P. House leaders, on the other hand, advised the President to keep the pressure on for large cuts in spending, veto appropriations bills that would break his budget, and hold the line against tax increases.

    Those Who Forget History Are Doomed to Repeat It.

  22. 22

    re 20: Yadda Yadda Yadda…. Not to dismiss what you are saying, but I tend to go with the John Fogerty interpretation of this mess:

    “Leave the sinking ship behind. Come on the rising wind; we’re going up around the bend.”

    You are either on the bus or you are off the bus.

  23. 23

    I look to see where a bus is going before I get on. All the buses I see seem to have “Cliff” as the destination. Until something better comes along, I’ll walk.

  24. 24

    The tea baggers are traitors:

    To hell with the Tea Party. To hell with them. In a crass, sleazy effort to keep taxes low for the handful of billionaires who financed them, they have permanently damaged America’s economic position.

    So much for respecting the nation and the very consumers who made you wealthy to begin with.
    Many people will lose their jobs as a result of this. Millions of people.

    Millions will also lose a tremendous amount of their wealth and retirement portfolios over the next few days, beginning on Monday morning when the market will react harshly to the downgrade.

    You can blame Democrats also, but the Democrats are incompetent and WEAK. The Tea Party was anything but weak. It knew exactly what it wanted, and it got it.

    America is burning, and they’re getting rich on their gold and silver. How’s that for a so-called people’s movement.

    Note: Not necessarily the views of my company, our affiliates or partners. My personal opinion only. Although I’m correct.

    Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com.....z1UH4TjLku

  25. 25

    @22 Godfrey Cambridge on 8/06/2011 at 9:36 am

    You are either on the bus or you are off the bus.

    Well, you got me there. Did not know the short bus was running on Saturday.

  27. 27

    This article says that republicans f###ed up the debt repayment. I dont think there was any plan to begin to pay back debt yet by democrats or republicans in Congress. The talk has always been about closing deficit spending, but I hope we all understand the difference between deficit and debt. I hope we all understand that the key to ending deficit spending is to stop spending. This is so very simple that I fail to understand what the argument is all about? Somebody please elaborate, for I fail to understand what the argument is even about, if the key to ending deficit spending is to stop the spending? Revenue has nothing to do with it.

  28. 28

    27. Nivek spews:

    This article says that republicans f###ed up the debt repayment. I dont think there was any plan to begin to pay back debt yet by democrats or republicans in Congress. The talk has always been about closing deficit spending, but I hope we all understand the difference between deficit and debt. I hope we all understand that the key to ending deficit spending is to stop spending. This is so very simple that I fail to understand what the argument is all about? Somebody please elaborate, for I fail to understand what the argument is even about, if the key to ending deficit spending is to stop the spending? Revenue has nothing to do with it.

    08/07/2011 at 12:54 pm

    Revenue has EVERYTHING to do with it.

    The money these assholes were arguing about has ALREADY BEEN SPENT. Appropriated by Congress. Voted on.

    Back to civics lass for you, sonny.

  29. 29

    I hope we all understand that the key to ending deficit spending is to stop spending.

    Why end deficit spending? We’ve only had a “balanced” budget maybe a handful or two times in our history. And each time the budget is “balanced” a recession, panic or depression followed.

    Only one time has the U.S. been debt free – under Andrew Jackson who hated debt and a 9 year economic depression followed.

    Too much debt CAN BE bad. Look at Japan. Their debt in relation to their economic output is WAY higher than ours and their economy’s “lost decade” is now stretching to two decades but I believe the “general welfare” of their people are much better than here.

    The debt here is not as bad as it was just after WWII but it is getting there. We managed that debt and the marshall plan and the Korean war and the cold war with hefty taxes. Corporations paid much higher taxes in those days compared to the paltry amount they pay today.

  30. 30

    Any of you that actually think the budget can be balanced a/o the debt EVER getting paid off are smoking some of Lee’s stash.

    and YLBurrito also forgets that we had the western(IE non-communist) world’s majority of undamaged factories with the ability to produce our way of the post WW2 debt while we helped rebuild europe and parts of asia

    not so much anymore.

    so YLBurrito, whats your brilliant idea? Oh, tax the rich – thats the only thing you can come up…LOL…FAIL.

  31. 31

    Did some right wing idiot say anything above the 3rd grade level? Oh what is this?

    whats your brilliant idea?

    End the Bush wars, end the Bush tax cuts, raise the income caps on Social Security and Medicare enough to adequately fund the programs (income security for the elderly and health care FOR ALL), reform wasteful and destructive drug policy with an eye towards eliminating the DEA. Cut defense spending – we don’t need 18 carrier battle groups, three dozen Ohio class submarines or 700 bases throughout the world.

    I heard some gliberatarians on the radio say BEGIN by cutting defense spending in HALF.. Reagan’s old budget director Stockman said more or less the same thing recently.

    For once I agree – almost. Pre-Bush level should be about right – if that’s more or less half then I’d call it even.

  33. 33

    Did any of you libtardos actually read the S@P report or like always you read the left wrong puke sites? Too much spending, plain and simple. Scream and shout all you want but Glenn Beck called this long ago with too much spending.

    So sad libtardos can’t figure it out without DNC or DNCC or DSCC guidance. See how gold has climbed to $1700 an ounce? Just a bunch of losers.

  34. 34

    BTW Roger Dumb Rabbit, I bailed out of the stock market back in January.

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