By Bobby Eberle
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Obama took to the podium on Monday to address the credit rating downgrade and what did he push? You guessed it... tax increases. This is another area where Americans need to cut through the media & political rhetoric and simply look at the facts. I wish the American people would see through the rhetoric and actually study what is being said.
Standard & Poors one of the nations most respected credit rating agencies lowered Americas credit rating from AAA to AA. It was a shot heard around the world but it should not have come as a surprise.
What is also not surprising is how Barack Obama and other Washington politicians are dealing with the news.
We hear whining... lots of it. We hear blaming... tons of that too.
But we still arent getting real action on the real problem: theres just too much spending going on in Washington.
When Standard and Poors dropped Americas rating they put out a
detailed report and gave clear rationale as to why the action was taken.
We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related 
fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending especially on entitlements or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process.
We also believe that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration agreed to this week falls short of the amount that we believe is necessary to stabilize the general government debt burden by the middle of the decade.
Politics and debt. Obama the Democrats and even some Republicans might not understand the questions but those are the answers.
Its important to summarize whats going on here before we dive into the aftermath of the Standard and Poors action. The company along with the rest of the world was watching the debate going on in Washington regarding the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling describes Americas borrowing limit.
Think of it as America having 10 credit cards and the country has maxed-out all of them. What is the country to do? Get another credit card of course. In other words America needed to get permission to raise the limit that it could borrow to pay its bills.
Most people knew that Congress would raise the debt ceiling but the terms of that deal are what captured the attention of grassroots folks around the country? Would the deal result in real spending cuts? Would Washington finally realize that the country is on an unsustainable path to bankruptcy and turmoil?
Unfortunately the answer to both questions is NO.
Every time there was a stalemate Obama and the Democrats would blame the Republicans for playing politics. I wish the American people would see through the rhetoric and actually study what is being said.
Just because Obama says things like fair or common sense or balanced approach or lets put partisan politics aside doesnt mean hes doing it. In fact he and the Democrats simply wanted the Republicans to
join them on raising the debt ceiling with no conditions on reducing spending.
On the Republican side this was yet another missed opportunity because no one has the political courage to actually do what needs to be done. The deal that was finally passed does NOT cut spending.
Next year Washington will spend more than this year. The year after that it will spend even more... and so on and so on. This is because each year the budget AUTOMATICALLY increases. Any cuts that were talked about apply to scaling back on the built-in increases. A spending cut is not a spending cut unless the spending actually goes down!
And so is it any wonder that Standard and Poors dropped Americas credit rating? Washington did not address the problem. The only thing Washington politicians did was ensure that America would go further into debt.
The stock market reacted on Friday and Monday by taking a dive. The Dow fell below 11000 for the first time since November. Over 5 percent of its value was lost on Monday following the 635-point plunge.
How did Obama and the Democrats react? They blamed everyone but themselves.
The latest tactic is to blame the Tea Party movement. This has to be one of the stupidest actions in the history of politics but it certainly is not stopping Obama and his gang?
Blame the Tea Party? The Tea Party movement was started because Washington is out of control. It spends too much. The ONLY thing keeping the debate on the debt ceiling focused on the idea of spending cuts was the Tea Party. Our spending is out of control. Standard and Poors dropped the countrys credit rating because of it and now the group most responsible for pushing lower spending is the group getting blamed. Insanity!
Obama said once again that the wealthy need to pay their fair share. HELLO! Half of all working Americans dont pay ANY income tax.
The top 5 of taxpayers pay nearly 60 of all income taxes. (
Click here for previous column.)
The tax system is NOT based on fairness. It hasnt been since the inception of the income tax.
Its designed to pit one group against another so that liberals can push even more and more spending.
Also people must remember that this is a SPENDING problem. We got into this mess because Washington spends too much. For each dollar America spends 40 cents is borrowed.
We can only get out of this problem by cutting spending. We could tax every rich person at 100 and still continue to run deficits. Cutting spending is the only way to get back on track.
Obama and his advisors will continue to blame Republicans the Tea Party or anyone else they can think of. What we need is not whining or blaming. We need leadership and we need it now.
Read more from Bobby Eberle & The Loft" by clicking here.
