Monday Morning Catch-Up

What a busy little weekend for news we just had.  The S&P downgrade has the Dem-Socialist spin machine working on all cylinders, and boy oh, boy, are they laying it on thick…

Soros-Funded Leftist Group MoveOn.Org Pushing New Dem Talking Point: “Tea Party Downgrade”…

 Top Obama Adviser David Axelrod Calls S&P’s Credit Rating Cut “A Tea Party Downgrade”…

New Dem Talking Point: John Kerry Parrots Axelrod, “This Is The Tea Party Downgrade”…

Think back just three short years ago when a Republican held the White House, or a little further back when Repubs briefly held both Houses of Congress. Can you imagine for one second, our Republican leaders besmirching their fellow citizens in this way? Dem Socialists loved to howl every five minutes that Republicans were questioning their patriotism, but that was always just misdirection. They knew they were putting politics above country when troops were on the battlefield, and they didn’t want people to notice.  But did Republican Congressmen, President Bush, or Vice President Cheney ever attack or vilify Democrats, or  the Communist fronted anti-war protesters (whose very goal was to undermine the war effort) during the Bush era?

They did not.

In fact, President Bush (ChimpyMcHitlerHaliburtonInc) always defended their right to protest. Protesters from every wacko lefty fringe group you can imagine protested during the Bush years, and Republicans in power managed to endure it all without viciously attacking their fellow citizens even when they protested in the most vile, uncivil and unhinged manners imaginable. Although, to be fair, they may not have commented on the more egregious elements of the protests because the MSM never reported on it.

LOOK WHAT WE’VE COME TO: Video: Tea Party Terrorists’ Media Mash

Nate Beeler cartoon via TownHall

People forget what it was like before our country was this profoundly sick and divided. Oh, it was divided before – but not like this. Never before have we had a President who would  instruct his left-wing followers to  “punish” their political enemies whether it be at the ballot box, on Twitter, on the White House Snitch Site, outside a Russ Carnahan Townhall, you name it…..This President has infected Washington DC with a Chicago style of political thuggery that should make every alert citizen recoil.  But not the far left. They recoil at everything decent, holy and good–they won’t do the sane thing and cut spending because  the  left  truly is sick. That’s right, I said it –  mentally ill. Why else would they put their own self interests above the country’s economic or national security  interests? Their quest for power supersedes everything else?

These are not happy people and they want everyone else to join them in their misery. They’ve succeeded – their sickness  infects the entire country, and we can’t seem to shake it.

Here is a choice rant directed at Washington from Patrick Richardson of The PJ Tatler:

You demonized the only adults in Washington D.C. who were among the Tea Party. You made certain we would end up here.

How hard could it have actually been? The ratings agencies TOLD you what you needed to do — rein in spending  – it wasn’t bloody rocket science. Hell anyone who ever balanced a CHECKBOOK could have told you what you needed to do.

But you played politics. You acted like Scarlet O’Hara and just refused to think about anything unpleasant. Well, Barry, I hate to tell you this, but there’s no kindness of strangers here to rely on. This is cold, hard reality. Until YOU, sir, the U.S. credit rating has always been stable or improving. YOU, sir, own this. You and your lickspittle accomplices in Congress and the media have brought us to this point.

Do not think the American people will forget. Do not think we will forgive. This country is angry sir, and nation after nation has discovered there is nothing on Earth more dangerous than a pissed-off American.

This country is on the edge of something very ugly, sir, and you personally have brought us here.

John Hinderaker, of Powerline scoffs: “Tea Party Downgrade”? They Can’t Possibly Sell It:

Put aside for a moment the fact that Obama’s willingness to compromise was entirely theoretical; never did he put such a compromise plan on the table. His FY 2012 budget proposal was anything but a compromise; it included no entitlement reform and projected massive deficits for as far as the eye could see, and therefore received not a single vote in Congress.

What is most ludicrous is the Democrats’ effort to distract attention from the fact that they controlled Congress from January 2007 until January 2011. The first Congress that had any ability to be influenced by the Tea Party movement has been in office for only six months. Do the Democrats seriously expect anyone to believe that S&P’s downgrade of U.S. debt arises out of something that Republican Congressmen have done in the last six months? We expect the Democrats to appeal to ignorance at all times, but this is ridiculous.

Let’s take a walk down memory lane. What did the Democrats do with respect to federal debt during the four years they controlled both Houses of Congress? Here is a summary of the deficits the Democrats racked up during that time:

FY 2008 — $460 billion
FY 2009 — $1,410 billion ($1.4 trillion)
FY 2010 — $1,300 billion ($1.3 trillion)
FY 2011 — $1,600 (estimated) ($1.6 trillion)

Of the $14.5 trillion national debt, nearly $4.8 trillion–one-third of the total–was incurred during that four-year period when the Congress was exclusively controlled by the Democrats. Moreover, and equally important, during that time the Democrats did nothing to assure the markets that they have a long-term plan to deal with the country’s burgeoning debt. On the contrary, for more than two years the Congressional Democrats have refused to adopt or even to propose a budget! If you are looking for the reason why rating agencies have lost faith in the ability of our government to get its spending and debt under control, you need look no farther.

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More along these lines from RS McCain:Liberals Spinning S&P Credit Downgrade: BLAME IT ON THE REPUBLICANS!

Let us stipulate that (a) U.S. fiscal health wasn’t exactly robust when Obama became president, and (b) in a time of fiscal crisis, a steadfast opposition to tax increases doesn’t soothe the worries of the bond market, yet still the fact remains that the immediate cause of the current crisis was the incredible two-year Obama/Pelosi/Reid deficit spending binge. And Obama’s response to the debt-ceiling impasse – tax the rich! millionaires and billionaires! corporate jets! Republicans are coming to steal Granny’s Social Security check! — was immature, selfish and harmful.

Democrats don’t want to fix the problem, they want to score political points against Republicans. And they expect their liberal friends in the media to help them do it — a perfectly realistic expectation, given the fact that Barack Obama could only have become president with the willing assistance of his liberal friends in the media, who more or less anoninted him as the Democratic nominee the day he beat Hillary in the Iowa caucuses.

I’d imagine even some liberal reporters are now experiencing buyer’s remorse and — despite their profound instinctive loathing of Republicans — are sick and tired of watching Obama scapegoat others for his own incompetence.

As Hinderaker noted at the end of his piece:

…it is hard to believe that even the dimmest voters will fall for the idea that the movement that was founded in order to do something about the spending and debt crisis is somehow to blame for that crisis.

Voters like this one, perhaps?

Keith Koffler of White House Dossier sounding as pessimistic as me, here, (and after watching that video, who wouldn’t feel fatalistic about our country’s future): The Sickness Besetting the Country, and the President:

There is a sickness gripping America, an systemic illness that threatens President Obama more than any particular problem.

Because the problems are but symptoms of the illness.

Two of the symptoms appeared just in the last few hours: the downgrade of U.S. debt, and the shooting down of a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 31 U.S. special forces.

The downgrade is not just an economic blow; it’s a disgrace. The helicopter is not an isolated incident, but consistent with stepped up attacks by a Taliban sensing our eagerness to leave.

The illness, perceived by a country that overwhelmingly says things are on the wrong track, is such: This country is out of control, and the president is either incompetent or unwilling to lead it.

Other symptoms abound: the abnegation of the U.S. leadership in the world, the rise of China to take our place, the failure to deal with a gnat like Qaddafi, the high price of gasoline, the millions of jobless Americans.

The president has both created the illness and failed to cure it, because he has failed to rise above his limitations: He is a leader who has never led anything larger than a Senate office, and he is a liberal ideologue.

Gateway Pundit: S&P Responds to Obama Treasury’s “$2 Trillion Error” Argument: It’s “Irrelevant”:

Today the S&P fired back saying treasury’s argument “is irrelevant.”
Zero Hedge reported, via Free Republic:

Yesterday we showed that when it comes to projections, the CBO’s own track record makes S&P shine in comparison. Apparently this fact was not lost on S&P itself which sent out a note explaining which “clarified assumption used on discretionary spending growth.” Basically, as S&P says, “Our ratings are determined primarily using a 3-5 year time horizon. In the near term horizon, by 2015, the U.S. net general government debt with the new assumptions were projected to be $14.5 trillion (79% of 2015 GDP) versus $14.7 trillion (81% of 2015 GDP) with the initial assumption – a difference of $345 billion.” So yes, while by 2021 the difference could be $2.1 trillion based on the CBO’s current baseline model, the truth is that the CBO’s own estimate on revenue and spending projections in a decade will likely have a +/- $10 trillion margin of error. So does anyone really care? In essence all S&P did was point out what Zero Hedge and others have been saying: that a “deficit cutting” plan which is massively back end loaded and has about $20 billion in cuts over the next year is absolutely without credit or merit.

Weasel Zippers: Tea Party Vindication: S&P Says It Favors Spending Cuts Over Tax Hikes To Fix Credit Rating…

The Hill)— Standard & Poor’s laments the possibility cuts to entitlement programs won’t materialize and the decreasing likelihood of new tax revenues.

The decision by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the U.S. credit rating to “AA+” at once laments the possibility that cuts to entitlement programs will not materialize and the decreasing likelihood of new tax revenues. But it appears to give more weight to the need for more spending cuts, as it warns that a further credit rating downgrade is in the cards if the U.S. does not trim spending.

In contrast, while the report indicates that new tax revenues would help mitigate the debt crisis, failing to find these revenues does not immediately put the U.S. at risk of another downgrade.

Specifically, the report warns directly that a further downgrade to “AA” status could occur within the next two years if there is “less reduction in spending” than what was agreed in the debt ceiling agreement. S&P said one factor that could lead to this second downgrade is if the minimum $1.2 trillion in spending cuts under the debt ceiling agreement does not occur.

More videos and links at The All American Blogger: Weekend Link Love: Milton Friedman Edition

MORE:

Observe how brazen some of these Dem Socialists have gotten with their lies: Former Obama Economic Adviser Busted Shamelessly Lying About Calling Republicans Suicide Bombers…

That would be Obama’s thoroughly disgusting  former “Car Czar”, Steven Rattner, the hyper partisan corruptocrat behind the threats to Chrysler bondholders, and the  Dealergate scandal. A real sweetheart. He figures, “oh what the hell, I got the whole table in my corner – most people ain’t gonna check the transcript, or watch it on Youtube. Yeah – I didn’t say what the square, here says I said”.

Michael Barone, TownHall on why majorities still reject the stimulus and ObamaCare: Americans Want the Honor of ‘Earned Success’:

Americans prefer to see themselves as doers rather than victims. They do not see themselves, as the masses in the Progressive Era a century ago may have done, as helpless victims of large corporations and financial interests.

They want public policies that enable them to earn success, and they resent policies that channel money to the politically well positioned or to those who have not made decisions and taken actions necessary for earned success. They want to be empowered, not patronized.

HotAir: Obama in bunker mode after downgrade?

Another “My Pet Goat” moment for Obama:

One might think that after a historic shock to the American economy in the first serious downgrade of our credit rating in decades, an American President would want to speak to a worried nation about the future and his plans to address the situation.  Instead of taking an opportunity to demonstrate leadership, Barack Obama instead spent the weekend away from public scrutiny at Camp David.  ABC News reports this morning that Obama won’t talk publicly today, either:

President Obama will spend today in closed-door meetings at the White House, no doubt tackling the fallout from Standard & Poor’s decision Friday to downgrade the nation’s credit.

After spending a low-key weekend at Camp David, the only item on the president’s schedule this morning is his daily briefing in the Oval Office.

Well, that’s not entirely true.  Obama will make two public appearances this evening, Mary Bruce notes … at two fundraisers.  With no cameras allowed.

What’s Obama going to say? He doesn’t want to muss himself with all the finger pointing and tea party demonization. His minions have that covered quite adequately. Meanwhile, the White House prepares  itself to make war on S&P over the downgrade. They should put Rattner in charge.

Captain Ed points out the trouble with that strategy:

That runs into two problems, however.  National Journal’s Michael Hirsh notes one of them, which is that Egan Jones had already downgraded the US over its dept-to-GDP ratio and the prospects of rapidly increasing debt over the next several decades.  The second is the immediate spin from the White House and Democrats that tried to blame the entire thing on Tea Party intransigence.  Essentially, that spin corroborates S&P’s analysis; it just blames it on a minority of politicians in a party that only controls one chamber of Congress, a rather ridiculous notion.

The White House seems rudderless, responding in entirely contradictory ways to the embarrassment of the downgrade, without any sense of leadership from the man in charge.  This isn’t “leadership from behind,” it’s the political equivalent of an absentee landlord.

It would almost be funny watching the liberal mob acting out every single word Ann Coulter wrote about them in “Demonic” – their casual embrace of contradictory ideas, demonization of their enemies, idolization of their leaders, their ferocious lies and desperate need for approval – but I’m feeling a little too sick to my stomach, right now,  to laugh.

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If you’re not already depressed enough after reading this compilation of bad news, read Mark Steyn’s: Mad Debt.