Moody’s has issued a warning that should shorten the debate over the debt ceiling.
Moody’s Investors Service warned on Thursday that it might downgrade the nation’s sterling credit rating if Congress does not increase the nation’s debt limit “in coming weeks,” putting a spur to sputtering talks between party leaders and the White House to reach agreement on a long-term deficit-reduction plan.
The debt ceiling has been used as a political football by the GOP this year, though Democrats have been unwilling to acknowledge that some of the questions raised by their Republican opponents about mounting debt are legitimate.
Debt is a long-term problem and will need to be controlled, but the prescriptions being pushed by the GOP are downright mean-spirited and disingenuous. We can deal with the deficit by ending our multiprong war on terror, reducing our military footprint world wide, creating jobs (a healthy economy will go a long way toward generating added tax revenues), reversing the Bush tax cuts and closing corporate tax loopholes. We don’t need to gut Medicare or Social Security.
But don’t expect Democrats to fight for these kinds of remedies. Instead, we probably should be taking bets to see how quickly Democratic leaders cave in to Republican demands as a way to avert a catastrophe created by GOP recalcitrance.
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Hank Kalet 
Where were all the deficit hawks when Reagan ran up the biggest deficits ever for his era? Reagan turned the US from the biggest creditor nation into the biggest debtor nation. Where were all the deficit vampires during the 8 years of Bush, who created the biggest deficits ever? Bush created the biggest deficits ever with his tax cuts for the wealthy, two unnecessary wars, Medicare Part D which was not paid for. The deficit peacocks don't really give a damn about the deficits, they were totally silent during the 8 Bush years; once a D was in the White House, then they became concerned about the deficits as a tool to kill all the social programs. You know, starve the beast so you can water board the government in a bath tub. The GOP wants to kill Social Security, Medicare and medicaid so it can give more tax breaks to the rich and the corporations. In other words, the GOP, the right wingers, the libertardians and Randians want to return to 1827 when workers were treated like trash, as slaves, heck there were still slaves in 1827.I'm no big fan of Obama, but he did inherit the Bush deficits, 2 wars and the Great Recession. He had to spend more money to revitalize the economy, save the car industry and to provide stimuli.