The Patriot Post Chronicle 8-10-2011

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 8-10-2011
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection." --Thomas Paine

Editorial Exegesis

"Whatever one thinks of the credit-rating agencies -- and we aren't admirers -- it serves no good purpose to shoot the fiscal messengers. Friday's downgrade by Standard & Poor's of U.S. long-term debt to AA+ from AAA will be the first of many such humiliations if Washington doesn't change its economic and fiscal policies. Investors and markets -- not any single company's rating -- are the ultimate judge of a nation's creditworthiness. And after their performance in fanning the credit and mortgage-security mania of the last decade, S&P, Moody's and Fitch should hardly be seen as peerless oracles. Their views are best understood as financial opinions, like newspaper editorials, and they're only considered more important because U.S. government agencies have required purchasers of securities to use their ratings. ... Yet is there anything that S&P said on Friday that everyone else doesn't already know? S&P essentially declared that on present trend the U.S. debt burden is unsustainable, and that the American political system seems unable to reverse that trend. This is not news. ... Despite S&P's opinion, there is no chance that America will default on its debts. The real importance of the downgrade will depend on the political reaction it inspires. If the response is denial and blaming the credit raters, then the U.S. will continue on its current road to more downgrades and eventually to Greece. What has already become a half-decade of lost growth will turn into a lost decade or more. If the response is to escape the debt trap by the stealth route of inflation -- a path now advocated by many of the same economists who promoted the failed spending stimulus of 2009 -- then the U.S. could spur a dollar crisis and jeopardize its reserve currency status. The better answer -- the only road back to fiscal sanity and AAA status -- is to reverse the economic policies of the late Bush and Obama years. The financial crisis followed by the Keynesian and statist revival of the last four years have brought the U.S. to this downgrade and will lead to inevitable decline. The only solution is to return to the classical, pro-growth economic ideas that have revived America at other moments of crisis." --The Wall Street Journal1

Essential Liberty

"While tea party critics are re-reading the Constitution, they should also consult the Declaration of Independence. That philosophical foundation of the Constitution reserves the right of the people to change their government when it no longer serves the interests of its citizens. The Declaration outlined the proper relationship between government and citizens, noting that government derives its 'just powers from the consent of the governed' (and) 'whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.' The British no doubt considered those who wrote and believed such things 'terrorists.' We call them patriots." --columnist Cal Thomas

Upright

"The decision by credit agency Standard and Poor's to downgrade America's AAA credit rating for the first time in 70 years is a massive blow to the credibility of the Obama administration, and a damning indictment of its handling of the economy. ... These are increasingly dangerous times, with American leadership being challenged across the globe. Only an historic reduction in government spending combined with pro-growth measures including lower business tax rates to stimulate job creation and attract investment can turn the US economy around. Unfortunately, as Standard and Poor's decision has shown, this is a presidency in extreme denial over America's towering debts, leading a nation on a precipice while blindfolded to reality." --columnist Nile Gardiner

"Had the Republicans gone along with President Obama's original request for a 'clean' bill ... would that have spared the country the embarrassment of having its government bonds downgraded by Standard & Poor's credit-rating agency? To believe that would be to believe that it was the debt ceiling, rather than the runaway spending, that made Standard & Poor's think that we were no longer as good a credit risk for buyers of U.S. government bonds. In other words, to believe that is to believe that a Congressional blank check for continued record spending would have made Standard & Poor's think that we were a better credit risk." --columnist Thomas Sowell

"The White House and much of the chattering class cooed on Friday when unemployment dropped to 9.1 percent and 117,000 jobs were reportedly created in July. But these numbers, upon closer inspection, show no progress on the jobs front. Buried in the job stats was a number -- 193,000 -- that dwarfed all the rest. That is the number of workers who left the job market. If 193,000 left and only 117,000 jobs were added, we lost 76,000 jobs." --Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin

The Demo-gogues

Yes, we have been: "I know we're going through a tough time right now. We've been going through a tough time for the last two-and-a-half years." --Barack Obama (Punchline hat tip to the WSJ's James Taranto)

Pot and kettle: "It's not a lack of plans or policies that is a problem here, it's a lack of political will in Washington, it is the insistence of drawing lines in the sand, a refusal to put what's best for the country ahead of self-interest or party or ideology. And that's what we need to change." --Barack Obama, who didn't address the credit downgrade until nearly 72 hours later

Reassuring? "Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be AAA country." --Barack Obama

Time for more spending: "The good news here is that by coming together to deal with the long-term debt challenge, we would have more room to implement key proposals that can get the economy to grow faster." --Barack Obama

Wait ... what? "If Congress fails to extend the payroll tax cut and the unemployment insurance benefits that I've called for, it could mean one million fewer jobs and half-a-percent less growth." --Barack Obama, who has no idea how to create or save a job

Broken record: "I've said it before, I will say it again: We can't balance the budget on the backs of the very people who have borne the brunt of this recession. Everyone's gonna have to chip in. That's only fair. That's the principle I'll be fighting for in the next phase of this process." --Barack Obama once again calling for higher taxes on job-creating Americans

This just in: "This is not rocket science in terms of how we can create more jobs in this country." --Barack Obama

Talking points: "I believe this is, without question, the Tea Party downgrade." --Sen. John Kerry

Unfair and unbalanced: "The media has got to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is not factual." --John Kerry, demanding that the Tea Party not be given the time of day