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Sometimes we play “what if” games, but sometimes the game isn’t even needed because there was a clear example of the same or a very similar incident had played out.
The media made much of the recent Moody’s downgrade and used it to indict the Trump administration, but its coverage of the ‘first ever’ downgrade by S&P back in 2011 played out very differently.
Obama officials blamed S&P and targeted it for retaliation. They publicly suggested that the downgrade was some sort of capitalist conspiracy against Obama’s reforms. And Obama blamed Republicans in Congress.
The media largely swallowed these narratives and minimized the downgrade as not really a big deal.
Now the latest downgrade, contrary to what the media is asserting, is due to the massive amounts of debt that every administration has piled up. The media is choosing to spin it as a tariff issue and to blame Trump for what is really the unsustainable spending and debt that really took off under Obama whose corrupt stimulus and infrastructure plans ballooned deficits without even having a war to hide behind.
During the subprime mortgage crisis, the national debt hit $10 trillion. In 2010, the Tea Party movement arose in response to an unacceptably high $13 trillion national debt and endless government spending. But by the time Obama was done, the national debt had nearly doubled to $20 trillion. And now here we are living large with an impossible $34 trillion debt.
In many ways this latest downgrade is Obama’s downgrade.
Moody’s turned out to be a Democrat shill. Very disappointing. I used to use Moody’s a lot in the 1980s or so.
Trigger warning for Truthophobes: here are some unpleasant facts regarding fiscal responsibility. (Not-so-“Intrepid”: get the predictable gay joke and junior-high-level name-calling ready and pretend no reader will recognize you do not refute the evidence provided.)
Neither Democrats nor Republicans have a shred of credibility when it comes to responsible budgeting. It was Donald Trump who successfully demonized Ron “DeSanctimonius” Desantis after Ron stated that something needed to be done about the unfunded liabilities of Medicare and Social Security.
Even when the unemployment rate hit 3.5% pre-pandemic, partially thanks to Trump getting Congress to lower corporate tax rates, Trump and Co. had made zero progress against the deficit. (I guess the Keynesians thought 3.5% wasn’t low enough to start running a surplus.) It is a fact that it was a desperate President Trump who called the last deficit-financed $600 stimulus checks “measly.”
Read the two essays “Panel advances budget bill that won’t reduce deficits” and ”
“Republicans Spar Over How Deeply and Quickly to Cut Medicaid” in today’s Wall Street Journal (I know already. According to those who will bear no criticism of Trump, The Wall Street Journal is no longer conservative. Time to recalibrate the Absurdometer.)
President Trump recently called Jerome Powell a “loser” because he will not immediately reduce interest rates. Here’s a trivia question for you: who chose Powell to be Fed chair? Never mind. Never let facts get in the way of Trump worship.)
Anyone surprised both Democrat and Republican politicians focus on the short-term while ignoring the long-term should read some Thomas Sowell. Incentives matter. (I guess Sowell should no longer be considered conservative because he has been critical of some of Trump’s policies.)
“‘Tariff is one of the most beautiful word in the dictionary.” A tariff is a ___. (Hint: begins with “t” and ends with “x.”) Now we have the President lecturing U.S. companies not to raise prices and just eat the consequences of the tariffs. Someone doesn’t understand profit margins…