On
August 5, 2011, Standard & Poor's "Lowered The U.S. Credit Rating For The
First Time, An Ignominious Legacy For Obama." (George E. Condon
Jr., "What A Week: Afghan Deaths, S&P, And Debt Limit Debate Challenge
Obama," National
Journal, 8/6/11)
- "The Downgrade, Hours After Markets Closed On Friday, Is A First For The United States Since It Was Granted An AAA Rating In 1917." (Paul Wiseman, "US Downgrade Raises Anxiety, If Not Interest Rates," The Associated Press, 8/6/11)
Presiding
Over Loss Of Triple-A Bond Rating "Really Haunts The Administration."
"But what really haunts the administration is the very real prospect, stoked two
weeks ago by Standard & Poor's, that Barack Obama could go down in history
as the president who presided over his country's loss of its gold-plated,
triple-A bond rating." (Carrie Budoff Brown and Ben White, "U.S. Credit
Downgrade Worries Obama, Congress More Than Default," Politico,
7/27/11)
Obama
Was "Firmly Part Of The Landscape That S&P Trashed." "But as he
prepares to head out of town on Aug. 15, the bad news keeps piling up: new fears
of a double-dip recession, a jumpy stock market and then Standard & Poor's
downgrade on Friday of the nation's triple-A credit rating for the first time in
history. S&P blamed Washington's dysfunctional political culture for its
move. Knocking Washington gridlock is a favorite topic of Obama's as well, but
he is now firmly part of the landscape that S&P trashed." (Carrie Budoff
Brown and Glenn Thrush, "Obama's Bus Trip Could Hit Speedbumps," Politico,
8/7/11)
Obama's Response To The Downgrade
Was To Call For Higher Taxes And Panic The Markets
In
His First Speech Since The Downgrade, Obama Said Our Debt Was Still Highly
Regarded; "Despite His Comments, The Main Wall Street Share Index, The Dow
Jones, Extended Its Losses, Falling 4%." ("Markets Fall Despite Obama Speech," BBC,
8/8/11)
- "The Dow Plunged Another 100 Points To Hover Around 500 After The President's Speech." (Daivd Kerley, "U.S. Stocks Continue Selloff: Dow Falls More Than 500 Points," ABC News, 8/8/11)
The
New York Times : Obama's Efforts To Restore Confidence In America "Did
Nothing To Reassure The Most Important Shareholders: Ordinary Americans Living
From One Paycheck To Another." (Editorial, "Past Time For A New Agenda," The
New York Times, 8/8/11)
- MSNBC's Chuck Todd: "You Get The Sense, WH Knew They Had To Say Something Given The News Of The Weekend But He Didn't Have Much NEW To Say." (Chuck Todd's Twitter Feed, 8/8/11)
Obama
Had All Weekend To Prepare For His Speech And "All He Can Do Is Promise To Raise
Taxes." All he can do is promise to raise taxes." (Jennifer Rubin, "Obama's
Horrifyingly Bad Speech," The
Washington Post 's "Right Turn" , 8/8/11)
Politico's
Ben White: "He Had One Good Line In There, AAA Country, And He Buried It Under A
Pile Of Tired Old Partisan Garbage." (Ben White's Twitter
Feed, 8/8/11)
- White: "Holy Cow. Really? He's Talking About Tax Hikes Again?" (Ben White's Twitter Feed, 8/8/11)
Rather Than Take Responsibility,
Obama Tried To Blame Everyone Else
Obama
Took To Blaming Everyone Else, "Sounding A Theme Likely To Dominate His 2012
Re-Election Campaign." (Jeff Mason, "Obama Says He Inherited Economic Problems,"
Reuters,
8/8/11)
Obama
Claimed At A DNC Fundraiser That He's Not At Fault Because He Inherited The
Problems. OBAMA: "Look, we do have a serious problem in terms of debt
and deficit, and much of it I inherited when I showed up." (President Barack
Obama, Remarks
At DNC Fundraiser, Washington, D.C., 8/8/11)
- When Asked If Obama Administration Should Be Held Responsible, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Said, "Absolutely Not." CNBC's JOHN HARWOOD: "Do you feel that you or the administration's policies are in any way responsible for this downgrade?" TIMOTHY GEITHNER: "Oh, absolutely not." (CNBC's "CNBC Special Report: Markets In Turmoil," 8/8/11)
- When Asked If Obama Did Not Bear Any Responsibility, White House Press Secretary Agreed: "I Couldn't Say It Better Than The Secretary Of Treasury Said It." QUESTION: "But last night on CNBC, Secretary Geithner was asked if the administration's policies bear any responsibility for this downgrade, and he said, 'Absolutely not.' So is that true? The White House believes that its policies have no responsibility for the downgrade?" JAY CARNEY: "I couldn't say it better than the Secretary of the Treasury said it." ( White House Press Briefing , 8/8/11)
- On CBS' Face The Nation, David Axelrod Denied That Obama Had Any Responsibility For The S&P Downgrade, Blaming The Tea Party Instead. CBS' BOB SCHIEFFER: "Well, are you saying that the President bears no responsibility for this? That this was all the fault of the other side?" DAVID AXELROD: "Listen Bob, what I'm saying is review the history of what happened here. I think first of all people are less concerned about that then where we go moving forward. But let's look at the history of this. The fact of the matter is that this is essentially a tea party downgrade. …" (CBS' "Face The Nation," 8/7/11)
BOWING TO POLITICAL PRESSURE, OBAMA KILLED A GRAND BARGAIN
THAT COULD HAVE AVERTED THE CREDIT DOWNGRADE
President
Obama Walked Away From The "Grand Bargain." "Eight months after deficit
talks between the nation's top two elected officials collapsed, a 4,600-word
inside-the-room narrative by The Washington Post on Sunday - the first of
several sweeping accounts in the works - paints the Obama administration as
walking away from a nearly done agreement with Boehner. And when the president
eventually came around and wanted to cut a deal, Boehner said it was too late."
(Jake Sherman, "Debt Story Tally: John Boehner 1, President Obama 0," Politico,
3/18/12)
Obama
Feared Backlash From The Left If He Agreed To The Grand Bargain. "The
negotiations with House Republicans were Obama's clearest opportunity to realize
his 2008 campaign pledge to usher in a more productive, bipartisan era in
Washington. The president has since pivoted to make a more concerted appeal to
the Democratic base, blasting those he calls intransigent Republicans at every
opportunity. But in the Post's version of events, Obama is portrayed as worrying
he would face a backlash from the left if he pulled the trigger." (Jake Sherman,
"Debt Story Tally: John Boehner 1, President Obama 0," Politico,
3/18/12)
Obama's
Then-Chief Of Staff Bill Daley Confirmed That The President Lost His Nerve And
Walked Away From The Deal. "And former Obama chief of staff Bill Daley
provided surprising, on-the-record support of the GOP's insistence that the
president deserves blame for losing his nerve." (Jake Sherman, "Debt Story
Tally: John Boehner 1, President Obama 0," Politico,
3/18/12)
- "Daley Said The White House Privately Fretted That Democrats Would Go Ballistic …" "Daley said the White House privately fretted that Democrats would go ballistic if the president agreed to $800 billion in new tax revenues when some Republican senators had signaled willingness to go along with as much as $2 trillion." (Jake Sherman, "Debt Story Tally: John Boehner 1, President Obama 0," Politico, 3/18/12)
- Obama Was Nervous About How To Sell The Deal, So He "Upped The Ante" In A Way That Killed The Deal. "But interviews with most of the central players in those talks - some of whom were granted anonymity to speak about the secret negotiations - as well as a review of meeting notes, e-mails and the negotiating proposals that changed hands, offer a more complicated picture of the collapse. Obama, nervous about how to defend the emerging agreement to his own Democratic base, upped the ante in a way that made it more difficult for Boehner - already facing long odds - to sell it to his party. Eventually, the president tried to put the original framework back in play, but by then it was too late. The moment of making history had passed." (Peter Wallsten, Lori Montgomery, and Scott Wilson, "Obama's Evolution: Behind The Failed 'Grand Bargain' On The Debt," The Washington Post , 3/17/12)
ONE YEAR LATER AND OBAMA STILL DOESN'T HAVE A PLAN TO
RESTORE THE NATION'S CREDIT RATING AND AVOID A FISCAL CRISIS
Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner Admitted The Administration Doesn't Have A Plan To
Fix The Explosion Of Federal Debt Looming In Our Future. REP. PAUL
RYAN: "Because we got 10,000 people retiring every day, and healthcare costs
going up…" TREASURY SECRETARY TIMOTHY GEITHNER: "That's right. We have millions
of Americans retiring every day, and that will drive substantially the rate of
growth of healthcare costs. You are right to say we're not coming before you
today to say we have a definitive solution to that long-term problem. What
we do know is, we don't like yours." (Committee
On The Budget, U.S. House Of Representatives, 2/16/12)
- In November 2011, Fitch Cut The US Credit Outlook To "Negative" And Warned Our Projected Debt Levels Are Not Consistent With AAA Rating. (Press Release, "Fitch Affirms United States At 'AAA'; Outlook Revised To Negative," Fitch Ratings, 11/28/11)
Since
Obama Took Office, The National Debt Has Increased By Over $5.2 Trillion, An
Increase Of Over 49 Percent. (U.S.
Treasury Department, Accessed 8/4/12)
The
Washington Post's Fact Checker: Obama's Spending "Has Hit
Highs Not Seen Since The End Of World War II." "In the post-war era,
federal spending as a percentage of the U.S. economy has hovered around 20
percent, give or take a couple of percentage points. Under Obama, it has hit
highs not seen since the end of World War II - completely the opposite of the
point asserted by Carney. Part of this, of course, is a consequence of the
recession, but it is also the result of a sustained higher level of
spending."(Glenn Kessler, "The Facts About The Growth Of Spending Under Obama,"
The
Washington Post , 5/25/12)
- The Washington Post's Fact Checker: Every Year In Office, Obama Has Wanted To Spend More Money Than Congress Would Allow. "So in every case, the president wanted to spend more money than he ended up getting. Nutting suggests that federal spending flattened under Obama, but another way to look at it is that it flattened at a much higher, post-emergency level - thanks in part to the efforts of lawmakers, not Obama." (Glenn Kessler, "The Facts About The Growth Of Spending Under Obama," The Washington Post , 5/25/12)
By
The End Of This Fiscal Year, Obama Will Have Racked Up Four Straight Trillion
Deficits:
- FY2009: The Federal Budget Deficit Was $1.413 Trillion, The Highest In U.S. History. ("Monthly Budget Review: November 2011," Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
- FY2010: The Federal Budget Deficit Was $1.294 Trillion, The Third Highest In U.S. History. ("Monthly Budget Review: November 2011," Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
- FY2011: The Federal Budget Deficit Was $1.299 Trillion, The Second Highest In U.S. History. ("Monthly Budget Review: November 2011," Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
- FY2012: The OMB Predicts The Deficit Will Be $1.211 Trillion, The Fourth Highest In U.S. History. (Office Of Management & Budget, "Mid-Session Review: FY2013," The White House, 7/27/12)
