House Republicans try to avoid the blame for what they have done

Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011 | 2 a.m.

In downgrading the United States’ credit rating Friday, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s said the recent debt-reduction deal didn’t do enough, and it was pessimistic that President Barack Obama and Congress could do more to address the problem.

“The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed,” S&P’s report said, noting the “gulf” between political parties.

S&P’s action wasn’t a surprise — the agency had signaled it would do so — and it was met with intense criticism. The Treasury Department said there were mistakes in the report’s factual findings, and the agency doesn’t have a stellar reputation. It and the other major credit rating agencies played a significant role in the financial meltdown of 2008 — they gave glossy ratings to risky investments that failed, helping trigger the crash.

The agency clearly was wrong to downgrade the United States’ credit rating — the country will pay its debts. However, S&P did point out a real problem: the dysfunctional political situation in Washington. The Republicans’ reaction to the rating provided a clear example of the problem.

In a statement issued Friday night, House Speaker John Boehner tried to lay the blame for the rating downgrade on President Barack Obama and the Democrats, saying they “remain unwilling to make tough choices.”

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said there is “dysfunction in our system, and a lot of it has to do with the failure of the president of the United States to lead.”

As galling and wrong as those statements are, they are not surprising. The GOP has avoided taking any responsibility for its actions. Republicans have the audacity to blame Obama for the nation’s debt, but fail to mention their own role. It was a Republican president who launched two wars and a Republican Congress that championed lucrative tax cuts for the wealthy — yet they didn’t find a way to pay for those things. The result was a dramatic increase in the federal debt.

Boehner’s claim that Democrats won’t make “tough choices” is ludicrous. Obama and his party put several concessions on the table, including entitlement reform. Republicans refused to reciprocate and make their own tough decisions.

Some Republicans have groused about the debt deal not going far enough. If that’s the case, they can look at Boehner, who bragged that he got “98 percent” of what he wanted.

And if McCain wants to talk about leadership, he should look at his own party. Boehner has struggled to lead the firebrands of his own caucus, and their refusal to compromise has hurt the nation and delayed progress. GOP leaders in the House walked away from negotiations with the Obama administration three times, and they finally dismissed talks, saying they would deal with the Senate instead.

The Republicans’ actions have only drawn out the nation’s problems. In this situation, the nation was pushed to the brink of default, S&P downgraded the nation’s rating, and Wall Street responded Monday — the Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 600 points.

America can’t handle much more of this type of dysfunction. Republicans should see that their actions have real and dire consequences and work with Democrats to find real bipartisan solutions to the nation’s problem.