August 12, 2011: Business Publication Blames Republican ‘Tea Party’ Legislators for US Credit Downgrade

Business Insider reporter Zeke Miller says flatly that Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a leading candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, is the reason why the US suffered a recent credit downgrade (see August 5, 2011). Yesterday, Bachmann insisted that the credit downgrade proved her argument against raising the US debt ceiling was correct (see August 11, 2011), but, Miller writes, the evidence, including statements by Standard & Poor’s, the agency that lowered the nation’s credit rating, shows that she and her fellow Congressional Republicans who fought to prevent Congress from authorizing the raising of the debt ceiling (see April 30, 2011, June 26, 2011, July 13, 2011, July 13, 2011, and July 14, 2011), are themselves responsible. S&P officials have said that Congress’s intransigence on raising revenues in any fashion is one of the central reasons why it lowered the US’s credit rating (see August 11, 2011). Bachmann led “tea party” Republicans in voting against every plan offered to raise the debt ceiling; she told reporters that the only way she would even consider voting for a raise in the debt ceiling was if the same legislation repealed entirely the health care reform act recently passed by Congress. Miller goes on to note that all eight Republican presidential candidates, including Bachmann, have said that they would not sign a bill into law that provided 10 times the amount of government spending cuts as it authorized tax and revenue increases. Miller concludes: “Bachmann’s statements on the debt ceiling come off either as stunningly uninformed about the issue, or deliberately misleading. Either way, this line of attack will only weaken her campaign with mainstream and business voters.” [Business Insider, 8/12/2011]