Someone thinks America will collapse soon...

[Kantor]

Baalzamon said:

Kantor said:
That's like saying that if I bet on Manchester United losing a match, I think they will be relegated.

Going down to AA+ will not mean the collapse of the USA, or even an enormous financial crisis. It would just be a minor pain which should nevertheless be avoided, preferably by House Republicans realising that taxes need to go up. It's rare that I completely blame one party for a problem, but there is nobody to blame here other than the Republicans. Obama has really done as much as he can. He's not a Republican president, and thank god for that.

First off, I totally agree with your first statement.  People are making way bigger of a deal about the credit rating than what it is.

Secondly, I cannot understand how in the hell people continue to think tax raises fix the problem.  Seriously, how fu**ing long does it take people to realize every time taxes are raised, the government just spends even more, and even more, and even more money.  How about, for ONCE, we stop spending so god damned much money on stupid, worthless things (no, I'm not even talking about the biggest things such as social security/medicare, etc, although some of those have their own issues).  And I'm going to blame both parties, because both parties are just as bad at making stupid ass laws and regulations and whatever else leading to even more stupid spending.

Granted, I would agree (given that one of the richest men in the world says he isn't taxed enough), that the extremely wealthy could deal with a slight increase in taxes (I'm not talking 5%, I'm talking slight, because the extra revenue brought in would be massive).  But if something like this is going to be done, accompany it with billions upon billions in spending cuts.  Also, don't tell us how much you are cutting, and then just add in billions upon billions more spending as well.  This doesn't fix the problem in any way whatsoever.  I want the whole problem fixed, and saying that just increasing taxes is the issue is completely and totally wrong.

I agree completely. The focus should be on spending cuts, not on tax increases. Give the government more money, and they'll find more ways to waste it. That's the reason the Republican party needs to exist, and why it is right that they are demanding a balanced budget before they agree to raise the debt ceiling. However, they are being completely unreasonable here. You can't keep tax cuts on the wealthiest people in the country when the government is as broke as it is now.

Both parties got us (well, you, anyway - I'm not American) into this mess, but Boehner and his lot seem to be trying to do all they can to keep it from being fixed. And don't even get me started on the Tea Party. Boehner is a million times better than the best of those lunatics.