By George Rodriguez
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas On a recent Sean Hannity show Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) said that blaming the Tea Party (for America s credit downgrade) is sort of like blaming the fireman when he comes to put out the fire." Nevertheless Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) did just that on his latest
news release dated August 6. Cuellar is behaving like a typical liberal Democrat and like President Obama who blames everyone but takes no responsibility. His accusation isnt even original since he is repeating the party line of the Democratic leadership.
Cuellars accusation is false because the credit rating downgrade had nothing to do with how close the U.S. came to the August 2 deadline" for raising the debt ceiling. The downgrade had everything to do with the medium- and long-term outlook for spending and debt. S&P stated in its rationale for the downgrade that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration agreed to this week falls short of the amount that we believe it necessary to stabilize the general government debt burden by the middle of the decade."
In other words the debt ceiling compromise didnt go far enough.
The road to the credit downgrade began in the 1930s when Roosevelt started using government projects to get people working. Ever since then Democrat and Republican administrations have increased the government spending (or investing as Obama calls it) to the point that America is $14.5 trillion in debt.
Furthermore the Tea Party has been arguing that the hand-wringing and catastrophic predictions by liberals are little more than a tool by opponents of fiscal responsibility to push for a watered-down compromise. Cuellar and his liberal friends only want to continue spending more and not stop.
The Tea Party feels that now is the time to rein in out-of-control spending and get the government on a path toward long-term fiscal responsibility. We must address this problem immediately and stop kicking the debt can" further down the road. The Tea Party was vindicated by the S&P rationale for the downgrade which noted that waiting until after the 2012 elections to enact real change will mean facing an even higher government debt burden and greater fiscal adjustment."
And so Congressman Cuellar the Tea Party is not responsible for the downgrade but rather the Obama administration that has added $4.3 trillion to the national debt in less than three years while politicians on both
sides of the aisle that have balked at efforts to enact substantial reforms. Cuellar should stop playing the blame game and support a Balanced Budget Amendment.
The Tea Party is not at fault for the credit downgrade nor the rest of our financial mess. Local Tea Party leaders including the McAllen Tea Party Laredo Tea Party Brush Country (Atascosa County) Tea Party Wilson County Tea Party San Antonio Tea Party and the Seguin Tea Party are demanding that Cuellar apologize for his comment.
George Rodriguez is President of the San Antonio Tea Party.
