Q&A with S&P

[BDBoop]

(CORRECTED,REFILE) Q+A-S&P's downgrade of the United States | Reuters

WHY DID IT LOWER THE RATING?

The credit rating agency believes the outstanding debt of $14.3 trillion and projected deficits for coming years in the United States no longer warrant the top-tier rating that it had assigned to the United States since 1941. It also said that the political environment does not build confidence that the United States can agree on how to lower the deficit in a meaningful way any time soon.

Anybody looking to get elected next year best reverse their cranial/anal insertion, tout suite.

 

[Lakhota]

I can't wait to hear the spin from McConnell, Boehner and Cantor on Monday.

 

[BDBoop]

They'll ignore the bit in my sig, I promise you.

 

[BDBoop]

Mainstream Media Ignores S&P Attack On Republicans | Thom Hartmann - News & info from the #1 progressive radio show

Have you seen, anywhere, in any media, or even heard reported or repeated on NPR, the following sentence? “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.”

It’s right there on Page 4 of the official Standard & Poors “Research Update” – the actual report on what they did and why – published on August 5th as the explanation for why they believe Congress – and even the Gang of Twelve – will be unable to actually deal with the US debt crisis.

 

[BDBoop]

Issac Bailey | If we don’t like Congress, why do we enable them? - Issac Bailey - TheSunNews.com

Why did DeMint help squash those deals? Because they included tax increases. Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell and a gaggle of conservative commentators did not want those deals because the president might get credit for bringing down the deficit. That’s also the reason the president had to create by executive order a debt commission. Top conservative senators backed off a plan to create a Congress-backed commission with the power to force fiscal discipline because President Obama endorsed the idea.

DeMint and others insist that there be no tax increases even though the tax code is generating the lowest level of federal revenue in about 60 years. Hedge fund managers who earn billions pay a 15 percent rate, about half the rate of those in the middle class. And almost 1,500 millionaires and dozens of multi-billion-dollar corporations paid little or no federal income taxes in 2009. President Obama also has to break his irresponsible campaign promise to not raise taxes on anyone below the $250,000 mark. Raising taxes on the rich alone won’t get us out of this mess.

“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,” S&P wrote. “We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues.”

Did DeMint read those words and remember that President Ronald Reagan raised taxes a dozen times to get our fiscal house in order?

Did those words trigger recollections of the last time we balanced the federal budget, under President Bill Clinton, when we cut spending and raised taxes even as most GOP members wrongly predicted that such a deal would kill jobs? The deal helped juice the longest economic expansion in our history.

No. DeMint doubled down on his demand for a balanced budget amendment that would make it even more difficult to raise taxes and hamper the country’s ability to respond to major crises. We won wars because we were able to go into short-term debt.

 

[BDBoop]

Don't Get Yer Skivvies in a Twist. This is PRECISELY What You Voted For! - Technorati Politics

Hey, progressives who not only sat out the 2010 elections because you were MAAAD at President Obama but convinced OTHERS to sit out the election because you were MAAAAD at Obama, hear all that noise outside this morning? All the fluttering of feathers, the cackling and scratching at the dirt? The eggs dropping every which place?

Them's yer chickens comin' home to roost, honey chile! You saddled America with this teabagger congress. And now, you shall reap what you sowed.

 

[Lakhota]

Florence Owens Thompson, age 32, a mother of seven children, in Nipomo, California, March 1936.

This is where T-Publicans are pushing America...again!

 

[Lakhota]

Standard And Poor's Warns More Downgrades May Come

The day after Standard & Poor’s took the unprecedented step of stripping the United States government of its top credit rating, the ratings agency offered a full-throated defense of its decision, calling the bitter stand-off between President Obama and Congress over raising the debt ceiling a “debacle.” It warned that further downgrades may lie ahead.

MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/b...e-of-united-states-credit-rating.html?_r=1&hp

 

[appleannie1]

Mainstream Media Ignores S&P Attack On Republicans | Thom Hartmann - News & info from the #1 progressive radio show

Have you seen, anywhere, in any media, or even heard reported or repeated on NPR, the following sentence? “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.”

It’s right there on Page 4 of the official Standard & Poors “Research Update” – the actual report on what they did and why – published on August 5th as the explanation for why they believe Congress – and even the Gang of Twelve – will be unable to actually deal with the US debt crisis.

Yes. Yahoo did.
But that doesn't mean we should ignore S&P's Friday evening shot across the bow. In downgrading the U.S.'s credit rating, S&P points out what has long been obvious: Washington's inability to come to an agreement on how to close the large fiscal gaps that have emerged since the recession began is troubling. Recent events have sapped the agency's confidence that the government can and will do what is necessary to align revenues with spending commitments. And it's difficult to escape the conclusion that America's credit rating was intentionally sabotaged by Congressional Republicans.

..............

But Congressional Republicans deserve much more of the blame. For this calamity was entirely man-made -- even intentional. The contemporary Republican Party is fixated on taxes. It possesses an iron-clad belief that the existing tax rates should never go up, that loopholes shouldn't be closed unless they're offset by other tax reductions, that the fact that hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than school teachers makes complete sense, that a reversion to the tax rates of the prosperous 1990's or 1980's would be unacceptable.


http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daniel-gross/u-credit-ra...

 

[Patrick2]

Lowering the US credit rating is racist, because we have a black president.

 

[Political Junky]

Mainstream Media Ignores S&P Attack On Republicans | Thom Hartmann - News & info from the #1 progressive radio show

Gotta love Thom Hartmann.
<excerpt>

It&#8217;s right there on Page 4 of the official Standard & Poors &#8220;Research Update&#8221; &#8211; the actual report on what they did and why &#8211; published on August 5th as the explanation for why they believe Congress &#8211; and even the Gang of Twelve &#8211; will be unable to actually deal with the US debt crisis.

Perhaps it&#8217;s just lazy &#8211; the bullet points at the beginning of the report don&#8217;t mention the Republicans or taxes, but instead just say, for example (part of one of six quick bullet-points): &#8220;[T]he downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges&#8230;&#8221;

In order to figure out that one of the reasons why is that &#8220;Republicans in the Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues,&#8221; a hard-working reporter would have to read to page four of the eight-page report. It&#8217;s just too much effort for most reporters?

Although they do also mention this in the very first sentence of the report: &#8220;We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process.&#8221; (Italics mine)

 

[Lakhota]

I think S&P was as concerned with the process as the outcome.

 

[ScienceRocks]

With the way our credit is right now s and p is being very nice. I believe it should of been down graded to at least BB. Some will say even as low as greece like level. There is no way we're gong to pay back the liabilities in the 100's of trillions of dollars let alone the federal debt. We're screwed!

 

[Mr_Rockhead]

Mainstream Media Ignores S&P Attack On Republicans | Thom Hartmann - News & info from the #1 progressive radio show

Have you seen, anywhere, in any media, or even heard reported or repeated on NPR, the following sentence? &#8220;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.&#8221;

It&#8217;s right there on Page 4 of the official Standard & Poors &#8220;Research Update&#8221; &#8211; the actual report on what they did and why &#8211; published on August 5th as the explanation for why they believe Congress &#8211; and even the Gang of Twelve &#8211; will be unable to actually deal with the US debt crisis.

I agree.

Congress reinforced that position when 95 House Democrats and 45 Senate Democrats passed the act.

And then, Obama signed it into law.

So, since it was actually the democrats who passed the bill, there is no way they don&#8217;t own it from now on.

 

[Mr_Rockhead]

Mainstream Media Ignores S&P Attack On Republicans | Thom Hartmann - News & info from the #1 progressive radio show

Gotta love Thom Hartmann.
<excerpt>
...

Although they do also mention this in the very first sentence of the report: “We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process.” (Italics mine)

Exactly.

There were no spending cuts (only a promise to maybe someday cut the rate of spending growth).

So, make no mistake about it, spending is going to increase under this bill (and the ratings company knows it).

Also, at no time did the democrats indicate they would use any new revenue to do anything except increase spending (and the ratings company also knows that).

 

[Mr_Rockhead]

With the way our credit is right now s and p is being very nice. I believe it should of been down graded to at least BB. Some will say even as low as greece like level. There is no way we're gong to pay back the liabilities in the 100's of trillions of dollars let alone the federal debt. We're screwed!

I am surprised there are not more people who feel this should have been done a long time ago. Perhaps if these ratings companies were doing due diligence twenty years ago, we would not be in the mess we are in today. And we are, indeed, in a real mess.

 

[waltky]

Standard & Poor's President Reportedly Resigns...

S&P President Sharma to Leave, Replaced by Citigroup’s Petersen
Aug. 23,`11 -- Standard & Poor’s, the rating company that downgraded the U.S. AAA credit ranking for the first time, will replace President Deven Sharma with Citibank NA Chief Operating Officer Douglas Peterson.

Sharma, 55, will leave at the end of the year to “pursue other opportunities,” S&P’s parent McGraw-Hill Co. said in an e-mailed statement. Peterson, 53, will take over Sept. 12 and Sharma will work on company’s strategic review.

S&P downgraded the U.S.’s debt rating Aug. 5, to AA+ from AAA, saying political divisions in Washington were preventing the country from tackling its fiscal deficit. The cut has drawn criticism from investors including Warren Buffett and Legg Mason Inc.’s Bill Miller, who described the move as “precipitous, wrong and dangerous” in light of stock-market selloffs.

Weakening economic data has prompted concerns about the U.S. recovery. Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics LLC in New York, said in an interview Aug. 7 the U.S. may be headed into a “double-dip recession.” Sharma having assisted McGraw-Hill with its division of the company into two separate organizations in November is now “ready for new challenges,” according to the statement. McGraw-Hill was divided between McGraw-Hill Financial and the credit rating service.

S&P spokesman David Wargin said he couldn’t immediately comment beyond the statement when called on his mobile phone after normal business hours in the U.S. Shannon Bell, a Citigroup spokeswoman in New York, didn’t reply to e-mail messages, left after regular business hours, seeking comment on Peterson’s departure.

Source

 

[BDBoop]

Standard & Poor's President Reportedly Resigns...

S&P President Sharma to Leave, Replaced by Citigroup’s Petersen
Aug. 23,`11 -- Standard & Poor’s, the rating company that downgraded the U.S. AAA credit ranking for the first time, will replace President Deven Sharma with Citibank NA Chief Operating Officer Douglas Peterson.

Sharma, 55, will leave at the end of the year to “pursue other opportunities,” S&P’s parent McGraw-Hill Co. said in an e-mailed statement. Peterson, 53, will take over Sept. 12 and Sharma will work on company’s strategic review.

S&P downgraded the U.S.’s debt rating Aug. 5, to AA+ from AAA, saying political divisions in Washington were preventing the country from tackling its fiscal deficit. The cut has drawn criticism from investors including Warren Buffett and Legg Mason Inc.’s Bill Miller, who described the move as “precipitous, wrong and dangerous” in light of stock-market selloffs.

Weakening economic data has prompted concerns about the U.S. recovery. Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics LLC in New York, said in an interview Aug. 7 the U.S. may be headed into a “double-dip recession.” Sharma having assisted McGraw-Hill with its division of the company into two separate organizations in November is now “ready for new challenges,” according to the statement. McGraw-Hill was divided between McGraw-Hill Financial and the credit rating service.

S&P spokesman David Wargin said he couldn’t immediately comment beyond the statement when called on his mobile phone after normal business hours in the U.S. Shannon Bell, a Citigroup spokeswoman in New York, didn’t reply to e-mail messages, left after regular business hours, seeking comment on Peterson’s departure.

Source

He's probably going to Moody's, so he can downgrade us from there.