In Which I Predict The Future of FOX

The good news is that after a tense negotiation that felt more like cops trying to talk a hostage out of a cheap motel than, you know, government workings, we finally got the debt ceiling raised to prevent financial meltdown!  That’s good, right?
Well, as it turns out, Standard and Poor still downgraded America’s credit.  What did they say?

Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues.

I’ve heard a lot of liberals saying, “That’s it.  This lays the problems with America’s finances, as seen by one of the top financial companies in the world, at the Tea Party’s feet.  Now they have to own it!”
Not so fast, folks.  I will now put on my Amazing Kreskin hat and tell you what the conservatives will say!

• The problem is that we didn’t cut enough.  This only shaved about $2 trillion off a projected $28-trillion deficit (or whatever the actual numbers are)!  If we had managed to reduce our spending to the bone, we’d get America’s house in order!
• Besides, Standard and Poor is just one financial company out of three.  The other two didn’t downgrade America.  So what’s wrong with Standard and Poor, huh?  Why do they hate America?  Let’s look at their history and find out all their scandals!
• They’ll hammer on this quote: the plan envisions only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability. Our opinion is that elected officials remain wary of tackling the structural issues required to effectively address the rising U.S. public debt burden in a manner consistent with a ‘AAA’ rating.

You kidding? An approach that involves cutting spending and raising takes on the super-wealthy?  That’s crazy.  They’ve got so much spin, you’d think they were a washing machine.
In other news, I agree wholeheartedly with this article, “The Real Confidence Crisis,” which includes the following money quote:

The real confidence crisis doesn’t lie with corporate America. It belongs to the Democrats. They are the party of government, and they should face it, and boldly advocate to use government to solve our problems. Instead, ever since the chaos of the ’60s and ’70s they’ve tried to insist they don’t like government any more than the Republicans do — and no one believes them. Maybe the dishonesty about their core values contributes to Americans’ lack of trust.
Democrats have helped Americans live in a dream world where their success is their own: Real Americans don’t get government help. This is a lie. The activities of government, going back to the days when it “purchased” North American land from other European powers and/or cleared it of its original inhabitants, created the conditions for American prosperity. In our own time, the invisible hand of government created the great middle class. The government has made all kinds of things possible through the tax code: the home mortgage deduction, for instance, isn’t in the Constitution, and only two other countries have it. Our supposedly “private” system of healthcare, pensions and 401Ks was likewise created by government, again allowing companies and individuals to avoid paying taxes on those employer “benefits.”