Last week, the budget deal, with its first consequence: the immediate increase of U.S. government debt, to outsize the Gross Domestic Product.
By week’s end, that notoriously rising debt was downgraded in the ratings.
Immediately, politicians began blaming each other.
In other words: No surprises.
Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Michele Bachmann both called for Timothy Geithner to resign. Sen. Paul argued that “Secretary Geithner assured everyone that raising the debt ceiling without a plan to balance the budget would not result in a downgrade to our debt. . . . He was clearly wrong. Our debt has been downgraded for the first time in history, and now American taxpayers will have to suffer the consequences.” Rep. Bachmann blamed the president first, then demanded Geithner’s walking papers.
Now, I hate to defend Geithner (he probably should resign), but the debt debacle is Congress’s fault.
But such niceties of responsibility didn’t stop Move-on.org from setting up a Facebook campaign to impugn the Tea Party, blaming the Tea Party’s cussedness for the downgrade.
Really? To focus only on the one political group actively trying to decrease the size of the debt demonstrates huge hunks of partisan chutzpah. By trying and failing to restrain spending, Tea Party folks only demonstrated Congress’s dedication to binge spending. The fault is in the binging, not in the feckless attempt at self-restraint.
Which is just what S & P considered: the company cited the wimpiness of the debt deal as the reason for the downgrade.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.