Blame Belongs Squarely On Republicans

Ben Adler at The Nation reminds us that two major Standard and Poor’s concerns are Republicans’ willingness to raise the debt ceiling and the need for revenue enhancement.

Specifically, S&P changed its baseline assumption that the Bush tax cuts would expire on schedule in 2012 because Republicans are so insistent that they must be renewed. “We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues,” wrote S&P. That adds $4 trillion over ten years to the projected deficits.

What needed to be done wasn’t done because Republicans, who are busy pointing fingers at the president, wouldn’t allow them.

Namely, we could have raised tax revenue. Note that I don’t say raising taxes, because we would not have to actually raise marginal rates. Merely allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire on schedule would have done the trick. So would closing tax loopholes while actually lowering rates, had they passed the president’s bipartisan deficit reduction committee’s recommendations, or agreeing to Obama’s $4 trillion debt reduction proposal.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.