S&Peev'd

Regardless of the admittedly flawed methodology or self inflicted brinkmanship that led S&P to lower US bond ratings.  As an exercise in focusing markets and the public on the flawed debt ceiling bill and the need to fix it is exactly the medicine Washington needs to begin to take the steps to make the situation right.  If the downgrade has a silver lining lets hope it will be to hold legislators accountable for their votes when they place them not when the bill comes due.

The decision was put into motion during the extend debt ceiling debate  when the ratings agency indicated anything short of a $4 trillion plan would prompt it to a lower ratings guidance.  A plan that would have involved sensible revenue increases would have gotten us much closer to that total. 

If the down grade comes as a shock it should to those legislators who think their actions are above reproach.  They have been put on notice, legislative probation to change their sorry ways and stop listening to nihilist's like Grover Norquist-who is still offering ideology in the face of a real crisis.  The best Senior Republicans- the party of getting in line and waiting your turn, formerly vintage Cheney and Rumsfeld, could do was let amateur freshman legislatures hold them hostage in the negotiations.  Or at least that is the best excuse they might conjure as excuse as a defensible position. 

But they are right to allow this to happen.  The old gaurd passed the spending bills including the "pro growth" Bush tax cuts that failed to generate enough revenue to offset their existence.  The war in Iraq, prescription drug benefit, the often forgotten summer of 08 Bush tax refund of $600 per person, financial crisis bank bailouts and now are forcing a halt to any lesgislation that might prove affective in combatting these serious errors in public policy.  The S&P downgrade is an indictment of this position that the deficit reduction can be won with policies that fail to collect enough revenue to pay for the legislation passed by elected officials.  The hypocrisy of Boehner, McConnell and Cantor  who unlike many of the Democrats they decry as spend thrift did not support most of the measures that brought us to this very disturbing day. But did Obama call them out on their unwillingness to finally pay for its spending? 

Why they continue to be able to speak with any authority let alone bargaining power is beyond me and continues to raise real questions about the role of the institutional media.  Personally, I don't think the Sunday morning wimps like David Gregory have it in them to simply hold these politicians to account for their records.  What a novel concept.