Teapublicans impede nation’s recovery

Dale Pitney, Henderson

Sunday, Aug. 14, 2011 | 2:03 a.m.

On the same day that Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating, the predictable Republican primary candidates started finger-pointing.

Instead of pointing at both parties for their failures over the past 11 years, it is suddenly President Barack Obama’s fault because it occurred on his watch. If that is true, then the failed policies of George W. Bush caused 9/11 because it occurred on his watch. Likewise, because the recession started under Bush, it is also his fault.

Standard & Poor’s has stated that if we had seen agreement on a quick, clean debt-ceiling increase, it is probable the downgrade would not have occurred. S&P now states that the dual problems of “no fiscal consensus” caused by the parties being “unable to bridge the political divide” are underlying causes of the downgrade.

What this decision shows is that the thoughtless, ignorant connection of the debt ceiling and the budget for future spending was wrong. The people who forced the issue by putting them together, the Teapublican Party, have shown that what they really want is a continuing stagnant economy, a stalled unemployment number, continued fiscal uncertainty (at least until the 2012 election) and anything else that would make it difficult for Obama to be re-elected, which is — to the detriment of this great country — their primary objective in 2012.