Dig up stupid!

Egan-Jones Downgrades US From AAA To AA+

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/egan-jones-downgrades-us-aaa-aa

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.

collapse no. An minor pain is possible but an AA rating will raise the costs for banks who wants to borrow money. For some banks that could be serious pain and not sure that the 'we may go down because the government will save us' mentality still exist.

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.

Are you kidding me? you had to know those comments would spark some debate. Granted I think the republicans have done some very idiotic things over the years, but to solely put this blame on their party is completey asenine and ignorant. Where were you in the last couple of years when Obama added trillions to our national debt with ridiculous stimulous packages that obviously did jack shit, plus pile on a ludicrous healthcare plan that is dead in the water and going to make matters worse. Barack Obama has to have been one of the worst presidents this century for what he has done so far. Are you kidding me? Yes...let the comments be flung at me for those words, because I know they will occur.

You do realize that Obama has not put ONE foot forward on an official plan he has? He has not put anything down on paper of what he wants. While in meetings with Republican leaders he would sound like he was agreeing to certain things and then the next meeting when they would discuss what should be cut he would not budge or give any specifics. If anything the Republican plan that is being discussed is not cutting enough. The problem that faces this nation is severe. one cannot continually go to the store being able to afford $50 shoes and then buy $80 shoes putting the excess on credit. This kind of spending is what a child would do that has no clue of how to balance their own budget. Come on man. If I had to say something good the guy has done I would say he seems like a good dad and a good husband, but in leader the country he has not LED! You think he has done all he can? Im sorry but I just could not disagree with you more.

agreed. Its amazing that some people just simply don't look at history. EVERY time taxes go up the governments spends even more. It NEVER fails. They think they will raise taxes and then cut spending. They are dreaming in candy land my friend! The U.S. government has made some real bone headed decisions in the past. And here is what amazes me about people that don't understand economics; Do people actually realize that if taxes are raised it hurts job growth and actually decreases income into the governemnt? ya you would think it would raise income to the government.

But tell me this, what would you do if you went to the grocery to buy food with $100 and they were making everyone pay a fee to shop there of $30? what would you do? well you would spend less and buy more things on sale as well as maybe some non brand names. Well lets say they uped their fee to $40? Well you would obviously spend less and buy even more cheaper things. Or you would just go to a different grocery store.

Raising taxes especially on small business owners will cause them to spend less, and to hire less. Therefore less money from their pockets is stimulating the economy. Therefore, less people can get jobs, because there is less money being spent so less employees are needed to stay in line with the lower demand. And guess what happens when there are less workers in an economy paying taxes? Thats right, less money goes to the government. In fact that means more people are getting money from the government because of unemployment benefits.

We cannot just tax our way out of this problem and get enough money to even out the spending. REAL spending cuts have to occur across the board, or this problem will NEVER be resolved.

Honestly what would be best is both increasing revenue and decreasing expenditure. The Tea Party is hilarious on insisting on both having a balanced budget and not in anyway increasing tax revenues - to balance the American budget both deep cuts and significant new revenues are going to be required.

Even though it could theoretically be done (fixing the budget solely with cuts), it is almost obvious that more tax revenue will be needed to balance the budget, yes.  My huge, massive problem with agreeing with raising taxes to fix the budget, however, is it doesn't fix the budget with the stupid legislators we have.  They see it as even more money they can spend, and the budget doesn't get fixed at all, and we wind up with even higher tax rates.  That is why I am so against raising taxes, because legislators saying they are doing it to fix our budget are full of shit.

with the US gov. so stupid and having not one lick of since to work together i can see it happening but it won't.