Republicans, its our way, or we'll destroy the highway

Standard and Poor on Friday reduced the US credit rating from AAA to AA+.  Standard and Poor and the rest of the credit rating agencies were directly culpable for the financial collapse.  The credit rating agencies  rated mortgage securities that were junk or inherently very risky as safe and profitable investments, which allowed the banks to sell them to unsuspecting clients who along with everyone else lost trillions when the bottom fell out of the housing market.  The report from S&P sounds like an indictment against the republicans and the tea party.  Below are some quotes from the full S&P press release

The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy. Despite this year’s wide-ranging debate, in our view, the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge, and, as we see it, the resulting agreement fell well short of the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program that some proponents had envisaged until quite recently.

 Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.

The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. As our downside alternate fiscal scenario illustrates, a higher public debt trajectory than we currently assume could lead us to lower the long-term rating again. On the other hand, as our upside scenario highlights, if the recommendations of the Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction–independently or coupled with other initiatives, such as the lapsing of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for high earners–lead to fiscal consolidation measures beyond the minimum mandated, and we believe they are likely to slow the deterioration of the government’s debt dynamics, the long-term rating could stabilize at ‘AA+’.

 Thanks to republicans like Michelle Bachmann and her tea party cohorts repeatedly saying they "will NOT vote to increase the debt ceiling" S&P has reduced the good faith and credit of the USA. John Kerry sums up the "tea party downgrade" in this clip:

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In the 1950's there was a great concern about individuals in the United States of America whose sole purpose was to bring about the downfall of America. Joseph McCarthy held inflammatory hearings about the threat of communists wrecking America from within. Today, we have another threat, but its not the reds or the commies its the Republicans and the Tea party. They have nothing but contempt for the American way: Majority rule. It's their way or they'll destroy the highway. Last year, they held the Start treaty and unemployment benefits hostage for a continuation of the Bush tax cuts. This year, the republicans held the full faith and credit of the entire nation hostage in order to impose their minority political views on the majority. Every recent poll has shown a majority (82%) of Americans want to increase taxes on the wealthy. The republicans have refused and continue to sputter nonsense about "job creators". In the US only the republicans believe: in trickle down economic theory, that climate change is a hoax, that low taxes create jobs and that government is the problem. Mitch McConnel said: "our number one priority is to make sure President Obama is a one term president." Jobs, unemployment, healthcare, wars, debt, infrastructure, wall street reform, reforming the tax code, republicans don't care about any of that. They just want to make sure the black guy in the White house has only one term. Only vast quantities of money and a sleeping electorate can explain how such a complete collections of idiots could come to power in our country.

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• Standard & Poor's Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating (npr.org)