Axelrod: This is a "Tea Party downgrade"

Source: CBS News

(CBS News) Former White House adviser David Axelrod on Sunday pinned responsibility for the recent U.S. economic downgrade on the Tea Party movement, arguing that the group's political "brinkmanship" during debt ceiling negotiations "brought us to the brink of a default" -- and that, subsequently, "this is essentially a Tea Party downgrade."

In an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," Axelrod, currently a campaign strategist for President Obama, said the U.S. economic downgrade was "largely a political analysis" and that "there's a broad consensus that is still the safest place to invest your money."

Nevertheless, he argued, the Tea Party was responsible for blocking a comprehensive deal that could have prevented such a downgrade.

"We can debate the strength of the analysis that they did, the history of S&P and so on," Axelrod told CBS' Bob Schieffer, of Standard & Poor's, the credit rating agency that downgraded the U.S. market from AAA to AA+ on Friday. "They made an egregious analytical error here but theirs was largely a political analysis... They want to see the kind of solution that the president has been fighting for... that will be balanced, that will include revenues, that will deal with some of our long-term issues."

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/07/ftn/main20089207.shtml

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S&P "made an egregious analytical error here but theirs was largely a political analysis"

Surely not.

the buttholes of the Koch brothers.

are millionaires and billionaries who don't believe in shared sacrifice, who want America to suffer, who want it destroyed so they are have absolute power in running a third world country, i.e., no workers' rights, no minimum wage, no affordable health care, no womens' rights, total disconnect between them and the American people, and so forth.

These people hide behind their brainwashed mimons, y'know the bible carrying and flag waving nut cases whom the corporagte media covers 24/7.

I noticed many Conservative voters in the UK changed their views when they lost their high paying jobs. Then there is the poorer group who vote against themselves.

Tbaggers.

Many of us read to comments after various articles in the MSM - these are the kinds of comments we should be placing. Forget reasoning with the followers. Target the Tea Brats both the corporate ones and the political ones.

It's just that simple. Keep repeating this truth until America understands it.

This recession was brought to you by Republicans and Democrats.

have tax cuts during war time?

Well, Krugman's been mentioning it since Bush's term.

wouldn't "get along". It makes no sense, but our "appeaser in chief" seems to think that it works better this way.

Thus, tax cuts.

Absurd, but internally consistent.

the states affected would be to come there as tourists. Isn't that similar?

btw, I am not sure Bush framed it as a war time duty. As I recall, he said it was the best thing we could do to help NYC in relation to 911.

Maybe I will try to dig up the quote.

Real wars do call for sacrifice by entire societies, real sacrifice. At a minimum, sacrifice would entail war bonds, rationing and tax increases. Serious wars include a draft. All of these are the antithesis of shopping trips and increased discretionary consumption, which is what Bush called for.

The thing about the undersea oilwell blowout is a bit similar, though not as nearly as stupid in my opinion.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Bush didn't call for sacrifice. He called for shopping. "Get down to Disney World in Florida," he said. "Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed." Taken on its own, this wasn't such a horrible sentiment. But Boston University historian Andrew Bacevich has made a convincing case that it was part of a broader pattern of encouraging financial irresponsibility. "Bush seems to have calculated — cynically but correctly — that prolonging the credit-fueled consumer binge could help keep complaints about his performance as Commander in Chief from becoming more than a nuisance," Bacevich wrote in the Washington Post in October. Now we're paying the bill.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1872229_1872230_1872236,00.html #ixzz1UUgQLA6t

Republicans. Blaming "Congress" blames both parties.

And that's only one example of many.

The Tea Party just now got a handful of its members into Congress. This economic crisis has been coming for a long, long time. And, yes, both Republicans and Democrats are responsible. Teabaggers, per se, not so much.

I have to disagree. Words are meaningless if not back up by action.

We need leaders not talking heads.

is good for america is pissing me off. What % of the public would have supported the prez if he had said " I don't give a shit if the rich don't like it, they will pay their fair share?" 70%? 80 %?
But no, we get.."give me a second term and I'll really go to work on them" "It's too tough right now; later would be better".:spank: :grr: :shrug:

... again and again and again that the US rating was downgraded during Obama's presidency, and that's all they need to know.

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If Eric Cantor jumps off a bridge because a three year old taking a tantrum tells him to, you wouldn't blame the three year old. The Tea Party has only the power everyone else gives it.

Especially when the White House was so generous with putting all things for the middle class on the table.... Darn that bad bad S&P!

This is the talking point; from this point on, deflect the anti- Obama meme and repeat the "teabagger babies selfishly screwed it up for the rest of us" meme over and over and over again. It is the truth after all.

"...he argued, the Tea Party was responsible for blocking a comprehensive deal that could have prevented such a downgrade."

Definition of "meme".
A meme (play /ˈmiːm/<1>) is an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.<2> While genes transmit biological information, memes are said to transmit ideas and belief information.

What was this "comprehensive deal" we didn't get? I don't remember seeing it.

for raising the debt ceiling, which everyone knew they were going to do anyway, for the sake of their own re-elections. Just like they were going to extend Social Security anyway during the lame duck.

"Grand" Bargain being an oxymoron the caliber of "Great" Depression. "Satan Sandwich" was closer to the truth.

They OWN this, every little bit of this.

country can't function with spending but even if it were zero we have this debt to deal with so the debt still rise with interest.

some people couldn't run a bank anyway.

They are terrorist and should be treated as such.

I don't see what the Teabaggers did as different then any other caucus, or the Senate for that matter. Use your block vote power to get the best deal you can. That isn't terrorism, it's politics as usual in DC. The bigger problem is politics in DC is broken.

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"he bigger problem is politics in DC is broken..."

Quite the little bumper sticker there... :shrug:

The downgrade happened because a criminal cartel of bankers and multinational corporations are calling the shots in Washington DC and BOTH major political parties are owned by that cartel and support a corrupt system that benefits and protects the wealthy elite.

I very much agree with this (politics as usual and a broken system in DC) but don't understand how the downgrade benefits the bankers etc.

They as much as said so and pushed to the last minute until the Democrats caved in name of Country and you want to lay blame there?

No the teabaggers are terrorist and have done this to the nation, they and the rest of the GOP are solely to blame for this.

Keep the blame where the blame is due.

and, as I recall, the only group arguing for any kind of sound fiscal policy, is the tea party. It's easier to point fingers than to address the underlying problem of our national bankruptcy. Pointing fingers won't stop us from being downgraded further however.

Here is what they said:
S&P also cited dysfunctional policymaking in Washington as a factor in the downgrade. "The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed."

http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/05/news/economy/downgrade_rumors/index.htm

"because Congress and the administration were too partisan to get anything done that would significantly improve the nation's debt outlook." This was about debt and spending and our inability to reign it in. period.

But what S & P says anymore has no crediblity anyway. Please see Reply 45.

and yes, we were both equally wrong and right which is why I warned against casting blame in the first place. Man, this is bad. real bad.

In any event, why is anyone acting like what S &P says is meaningful?

These are the folks who gave AAA ratings to the credit default swaps and crap mortgage derivatives that brought the economies of the globe to their knees.

who are hurting the most. We have had ten years of tax breaks for the wealthiest and corporations that have not been seen since before the great depression. And for ten fekkin years, they've been telling us how those with the big tax breaks were going to create jobs. It didn't happen. What happened was the wealthy and corporations invested overseas or sat on the money.

And right now a balanced budget is the least of our worries. I truly love the hypocrisy of repugs, especially after eight years of little financial accountability. Oh, and the teabaggers are just repugs, have always been repugs, financed by some of the wealthiest greedheads.

The President is a Democrat, the Senate is controlled by the Democrats and there is what, maybe 80 Teabaggers - not even a majority of the Repubs. So that leaves about 350 not Teabaggers. So that 80 did all this? Damn, call their bluff - get what you need in a bill. What happens if we went past 4 Aug? We get downgraded? Oh wait, we did anyway.
And yes, I'll lay some of the blame on the Dems. Absolutely. If Reid had made a bill and rammed it down the throat of the House maybe they would have caved. Go on the offensive for a change. It worked with the Health Care Bill. What do you think FDR would have done?
I'll submit to you the bigger problem is that some dems are in bed with wall street.

These teabaggers were terrorist.

The Democrats had to cave, no choice or take the blame, so now you want to give it to them anyway.

No one wants to fact that, not Republicans and certainly not Democrats.

however, it is democrats and especially republicans who have bought into global corporations can police themselves, especially wall street. Glass-steagall was repealed under Clinton. Of course Clinton also signed NAFTA-GATT and that was poppy bush's baby.

As esteemed economists like Galbraith, Stiglitz and Krugman pointed out, in order to get the country on its' feet, money must be spent on stimulating the economy. Yes, Obama did a stimulus that the repugs hated, but he was told by economists that it wasn't enough Just as FDR created government projects that is what is needed now, not balancing the damn budget or curbing the deficit. Little Boots basically shoveled our money to his war profiteering corporate friends at exorbitant prices. Some of those damn building projects in Iraq are complete boondoggles-some structures are so unsafe they can't even be used. But, some corporate greedhead got big bucks for shoddy work-that's our money.

To me, the teabaggers have too much faith in global corporations, as if a corporation could murder a thousand people they'd be held accountable. So much faith that a bad corporation will fade away, instead after criminal malfeasance, they just change their name and it's business as usual. They distrust the government, and after eight nightmarish years of cutting regulatory staff (USDA, FDA) and hiring the truly incompetent for jobs in FEMA-you have a population of dunderheads who actually believe government doesn't work. It works when someone responsible in office makes it work, not some corporate toadies who have changed jobs into regulatory so they can schmooze their old buddies. It never works when the fox is guarding the hen house, just like the S&L heist.

Of course, it is far easier to pass something favoring corporations than favoring the people. It doesn't matter if it's a democrat or republican, anything for a corporation or for the wealthy it gets done-anything for the plebes, it's a lot of debate and wrangling. Doesn't matter if grandma, the disabled, children and workers are suffering.

....we understand, David....but who helped elevate these baggers into a power to be reckoned with by kow-towing to their insane threats instead of blasting them?

....we also understand that we need more Dems with cojones to take on these right-wing bagger Nazis or things will never improve....admit it David, all we've seen so far are mainly pencil-dicked Chamberlains with appeasement....

"They want to see the kind of solution that the president has been fighting for... that will be balanced, that will include revenues, that will deal with some of our long-term issues."

....schmoozing and fighting alongside the Nazis is never a good idea and 'long-term issues' must be code for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (they don't want to see revenues)....cojones David, if you see any, let us know....

... should be tried for treason, convicted and jailed and, depending on the final damage, possibly executed.

Some of us are not as gullibe this time around, though, Davieh. You'll have to try harder.

Oops. I just checked his wiki. This may explain a lot.

"On April 15, 2009, Jim Messina and Jon Selib, chief of staff to Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, convened a meeting at the headquarters of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) with leaders of organized labor and health care groups, including PhRMA. At the meeting, the groups decided to form two nonprofit entities to promote reform efforts, Healthy Economy Now and Americans for Stable Quality Care, that would be almost entirely funded by PhRMA. The two groups spent $24 million on their advertising campaigns; the contract to produce and place ads went to White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod's former firm, AKPD, which owed Axelrod $2 million.<28>

David Axelrod left his White House senior advisor post on January 28, 2011. He is expected to be a top aide to Obama's 2012 re-election campaign."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Axelrod

for my new higher % rate

that it is beyond my realm of comprehension how anyone can fall for this stuff of fluff.

After all, they just the latest arrivals at a very large party that began along time ago.

Senator Kerry, Senator Graham, Sirs, could I have a moment of your time? Senators, how could two well seasoned and brilliant politicians like yourselves let these armatures come up here and create all of this chaos, debt and destruction, in such a short amount of time?

Senators, do think members of the House and the Senate who have been at this party for a very long time are going to be able to skate by under the radar and blame all of this on the Tea Party and the President alone?

:rofl: