'No risk' the US will lose its top credit rating, says Treasury's Geithner
- 04/19/11 10:33 AM ETTreasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Tuesday there is "no risk" the U.S. will lose its top credit rating amid a new analysis that revised its outlook on American debt to "negative."
Geithner took to the airwaves of financial news networks to push back against a report Monday by Standard & Poor's that lowered its outlook on U.S. debt to "negative," reflecting political uncertainty over whether lawmakers will reach an agreement to address long-term debt.
via thehill.com
I am not a so-called Tea-Partier. I am not, because the title is so vague that it really has no definition. What I am,is a fiscal conservative. By that ,I mean that it's not rocket-science to realize that the brand of economy and and recovery that our current administration has been following is false and delusional.
It's historical. It has never worked long-term. I don't know why so many Americans have allowed this to go on so long--led like lemmings off a cliff. The reason I mention the Tea-Party is that they have been so vilified for their general common sense approach to improving the economy just as me must at home.
The main precept for this approach is to stop the out-of-control governmental spending, reduce the need for so much individual taxation, and allow Capitalism and free-enterprise to happen without so many constraints. In other words--to live our means. Why is that so hard to understand? Remember that the Tea Party IS NOT A PARTY AT ALL. It's not a Republican thing. Neither is fiscal conservatism, unfortunately.
It is not merely a pie-in-the-sky ideal; it is the only course that can work. It will happen one way or another. It will happen it a planned way for whch we can prepare. Or it will happen from cause and effect regardless of what we do. This is why Communism has never worked.
Okay--maybe it IS human greed that makes this idea work. Call it that if it makes you feel better. Maybe it would sound better to call it work for rewards or something like that. Either way, it is what it is, or from a pessimists viewpoint, it ain't what it ain't. Better?
Whatever it is entitled, it just IS. By nature humans tend to do the things that personally reward them. No matter how idealistic a minority of people are, or even a majority, they will be the most productive and the most personally satisfied if the gain from being industrious. Even criminals work under this premise (possibly, especially criminals).
People tend to steal and rape and plunder and deal drugs or use drugs--because there is some "positive" payoff for them so doing. Remove the incentive and they'll likely stop. Too bad our justice system doesn't seem to provide such deterrence. This thought should be examined too.
Meanwhile, our personal ideals cannot be imposed upon everyone else just because we think they are the right ones. They HAVE to actually BE the correct ideals. The ones that work. The sky is not blue if it is black. It's just not--even if you are blind or in a cave.
Now for all of the vilification of the TEA PARTY that has taken place in the media, among liberals, among status-quo (so-called progressive) Republicans, among most Democrats, and by the finger-pointing of President Obama's Administration--it should be dawning upon rational people that the downgrading of America's credit rating has happened BECAUSE OF THE HIGH-DEBT THAT HAS BEEN RUN UP! It Is not because during the past few weeks the freshmen Congressmen who were voted in last fall have at least tried to keep their promises to their constituents. so don't EVEN keep up that stupid line.
Not because taxes have not been high enough. It's real easy to cry fowl and demand taxes from people and classes who are not you. I suppose everyone does such things. But this approach is no better an approach than any other prejudiced finger-pointing. So it is prejudice toward a vast minority--the rich.
The rich are anyone who has more than we do. They are a moving target that's easy to assign blame to in order to deflect blame from being directed at us--and it is emotion-driven. It is the approach that has always been divisive. It is class distinction.
We don't have enough. They appear to. So it is their fault. It's not fair! We cry. When in reality what WE propose is not fair. Why should someone other than us have to pay for our existence? I have never got that. I have never been rich--except in the eyes of people poorer than I, and that's means poor. Maybe they DO need our help. They are mentally and/or physically handicapped.
This is why good and responsible people share their wealth charitably with the less-fortunate--voluntarily. Not by force. I am willing to bet that it is religion more than any other one factor that influences people to be altruistic. So stop damning those terrible and out of touch old time religionists who have worked hard enough to have a few more bucks that you. They are currently running interference for you with the tax man. They are also giving more to the truly unfortunates of the world way more than any government.
The amazing thing to me, and I've said it before but it is still amazing, is that what I grew up being taught and what most Americans believed some twenty, thirty, forty years ago--certainly less than an average lifetime ago--HAS NOW BEING CALLED THE RADICAL RIGHTWING BELIEF OF THE CRAZIES! To hear the above mentioned segments led by the decidedly left-leaning media tell it. But just that short time ago those RIGHTWINGERS were considered mainstream or even leftests. I am not kidding.
If you have lived long enough, then you know this is true. If you have not lived long enough--you can read it in archived newspapers. Or ask your parents and grandparents.
My parents nearly starved to death during their early lifetimes--during the Great Depression. They were Southern Democrats. But they espoused principals based upon history and common sense. What they believed--would now be considered solidly right--for the most part. What regular Democrats believed was what a few left-wing-nuts believed then. And what true lefties now believe was FREAKIN ILLEGAL. It was not politically correct to plot to overthrow your government--whether or not it was merely called fundamentally changing it.
It was not politically correct, just that short lifetime ago, to want a handout from people richer than us. This was reserved for those having absolutely no hope left, no self-respect, no nothing. It was not considered fair, good, or deserved. It was the exception ot the rule. It was sad. It was not popular nor was it something to strive for. Maybe that was harsh, but it was that way then.
Guess which set of principles made America a world power? It was not the rhetoric we hear now coming out of the White House and the Senate. Sure, relatively blessed and rich brat that I was, I got in on the cool protests of the sixties and early seventies. But I out-grew that foolish little tangent. But by the eighties I had a family and a bunch of kids and needs and wants and desires. If anyone was giving such things away back then, I did not get them.
The only way for me and my family to survive was for me to be productive, work hard, use tried and proved principles of wealth, and try to catch up to where I could have been if I had not played liberally for a decade or so. In other words I woke up. I didn't sell out. I relearned age-old truths which--had I just listened to my parents, our parents, the previous generation--I would not have to learn for myself.
But it seems like so few do the smart thing. Those who do are blessed for it. Yeah, maybe we all gained a little from the mistakes we made. We were certainly sincere. Maybe we even made some corrections that needed to be made. But as with most corrections--we went overboard. Like a friend once said--peace and love, became drugs and sex. And other such things.
If I didn't once think there was a devil. I sure do now. I saw him obliterate the goodness of the ideals of my generation's best. Now I am watchning current generation's best run off the cliff following by watching following the rear-ends leading them. I am hoping that future generations of my children and grandchildren relearn the lost lessons. It is still within our power to correct our over-corrections. If not for us, for the kids
I hope Americans wake up. But I really fear that it's too late for the country. I can only hope that some individuals will look after themselves and theirs. And survive to rebuild again. A country can crash without all of its citizens going down with it. If fact, we have an obligation to survive.
Does Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and his boss know what they are doing? I rest my case.
