By Adam Bitely – The political class in Washington got a wake up call late Aug. 5 — they are just as mortal as the rest of humanity.
For some strange reason, many of the political elite were astounded that Standard & Poor’s would downgrade the U.S. credit rating. What seems so obvious to so many people, appears to be a foreign concept to those in D.C..
When a nation has over $14 trillion in debt, and increases their borrowing limit by over $2 trillion over a year and a half, and only vows to cut about $1 trillion over a decade, it’s no wonder that a credit ratings agency would downgrade the U.S. credit rating.
But what is most important here is the lesson that some politicians might finally learn from this incident — and that is that the political elite in Washington have to abide by the same rules as everybody else.
Politicians on the campaign trail have long felt a need to proclaim that America has some sort of exceptional advantage over the rest of the world. This is commonly believed to be true, but when a believer is asked to explain, they usually point to a flag, a politician, or some sort of government building as evidence of such claims.
But what has made America great is its relatively free market economy — not politicians and government meddlers who are ever increasing the government’s size and scope.
Many elected officials have fallen prey to the belief that because America is exceptional, they as the leaders of the government must also be exceptional. And that is why the responses from these people when their credit rating was downgraded came as no surprise.
Some seemed shocked that S&P would point out that over $14 trillion in debt is slightly high. Others claimed that S&P is in no position to pass judgment on credit ratings.
Have our politicians forgotten that they racked up such massive debts that have no realistic way to be repaid at this point in time?
Washington politicians need to look at the credit downgrade as a wake-up call, a reminder that they have to abide by the same spending laws that everyone else abides by. But as Obama indicated Monday, he is content on continuing to live in the fantasyland that the U.S. still has a AAA credit rating, and will completely disregard the lessons from this downgrade.
Liberal talking heads such as Michael Moore, taking a page from Fidel Castro, suggested on Twitter yesterday that Obama should arrest the CEO of Standard & Poor’s suggesting that their action of downgrading U.S. credit was aimed at taking down the economy.
Paul Krugman weighed in suggesting that S&P’s is trying to murder the economy, stating in the New York Times, “If there’s a single word that best describes the rating agency’s decision to downgrade America, it’s chutzpah — traditionally defined by the example of the young man who kills his parents, then pleads for mercy because he’s an orphan.”
It would appear that the nation’s leaders have no appetite for learning their lessons. Instead, Obama and his cohorts in Washington plan on continuing to live in the myth that you can borrow and spend as much as you please, with no possible repercussions.
If only they would come to the realization that they are mere mortals, and can’t repeal the basic economic laws that govern every household in America and every other country in the world just because they are the temporary custodians of power in Washington, our nation would be a better place.
Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @AdamBitely.
