Politics

Credit-rating agency threatens downgrade if Obama spending isn’t curbed

Neil Munro White House Correspondent
Font Size:

President Barack Obama’s ambitious spending plans will lead to another downgrade of the United States’ credit rating, according to a Jan. 15 warning from Fitch Ratings — a top-ranked credit-rating agency.

Without “agreed and credible medium-term deficit reduction plan that would be consistent with sustaining the economic recovery and restoring confidence in the long-run sustainability of U.S. public finances, the current Negative Outlook on the ‘AAA’ rating is likely to be resolved with a downgrade,” read an early morning announcement by the London-based firm.

The downgrade is expected “even if another debt ceiling crisis is averted” by a debt-ceiling deal before March, said the firm, which is one of the three major international credit-rating firms.

In August 2011, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit ratings from AAA, to AA-, after deficit-reduction talks failed at the last moment when Obama suddenly asked for an additional tax increase of $400 billion over 10 years. (RELATED VIDEO: Mark Levin lays into “arrogant as hell imperial president”)

The government’s debt is $16.4 trillion and is slated to reach almost $20 trillion by 2017, according to financial analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. That’s up from $11 trillion when Obama was inaugurated, and it averages out to roughly $125,000 for each working-age American.

The stark warning of another downgrade was largely ignored by Washington-based political reporters, even though a downgrade could drive up the interest payments on the nation’s fast growing debt, and force deep cuts in other spending programs.

Instead, most political reporters were focused on the administration’s pending rollout of its project to “reduce gun violence” with a new set of federal laws, regulations and spending programs.

The Jan. 15 midday press conference at the White House, for example, included numerous questions about guns, but none about the Fitch warning, and none about the pending clash over the federal government’s credit limit.

Several media outlets carried reports on Fitch’s warning, but most highlighted Fitch’s prominent call for the Congress to raise the debt limit to allow the federal government to spent roughly $1 trillion per year above tax revenues.

“Failure to raise the debt ceiling in a timely manner will prompt a formal review of the U.S. sovereign ratings,” the first paragraph of the Fitch announcement read.

The important warning of a downgrade if the U.S. can’t establish a “deficit reduction plan that would be consistent with sustaining the economic recovery and restoring confidence,” was contained in the last paragraph of Fitch’s announcement.

The first debt-ceiling sentence was spotlighted by several media outlets that gave the GOP responsibility for the growing debt and the debt-ceiling impasse.

“A major credit agency is threatening to downgrade the U.S. debt rating unless Congress acts quickly to raise the debt ceiling,” Politico reported.

“Congress has to increase the country’s debt limit, which effectively rules how much debt the U.S. can have, by March 1 or face a potential default,” reported the Associated Press.

The debt-ceiling debate is stalled because Obama has announced he will not negotiate spending curbs or program reforms sought by the GOP majority in the House, and said that he wants any cut to be partially offset by increased taxes.

During a Jan. 15 press conference Obama continued this strategy, demanded more spending and berated the GOP for seeking curbs and reforms. (RELATED VIDEO: Hume: “Strikingly aggressive and partisan” Obama looking to deepen problems for GOP)

Budget cuts, he said, would “fundamentally change commitments that we’ve made to make sure that seniors don’t go into poverty, or that children who are disabled are properly cared for.” (RELATED: Obama says old folks, sick, troops will face chopping block if GOP doesn’t OK bigger debt)

By not raising the debt-ceiling, Republicans were putting an economic “gun at the head of the American people … [and] threaten to wreck the entire economy,” he said. (RELATED: Obama in final first-term press conference: Republicans are ‘suspicious’ about feeding poor children)

The suggestion that the GOP would let children starve “is essentially a libel,” commentator Charles Krauthammer said on Fox. “Then [Obama] said, ‘Oh yes, but I love hanging out at congressional picnic with these people who want to starve America’s children,” he added.

Fitch’s statement included an extended criticism of the debt-ceiling, which is part of the constitutional provisions that given Congress — not the White House — control over federal budgets.

“In Fitch’s opinion, the debt ceiling is an ineffective and potentially dangerous mechanism for enforcing fiscal discipline,” the Fitch report read.

“It does not prevent tax and spending decisions that will incur debt issuance in excess of the ceiling while the sanction of not raising the ceiling risks a sovereign default and renders such a threat incredible,” it charged.

Follow Neil on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel