S&P Downgrade is Symptomatic

The S&P downgrade of the credit worthiness of the United States of America was predicted.  It happened.  We are shocked.  We should not be.  S&P told us what we had to do for them to continue to consider our economy worthy of a Triple A rating.  We chose not to do it.  They downgraded us.  (Please note that they are telling us that they will do it again unless we get serious about improving our economic posture.)

My guess is that we will now argue about whose fault it is and continue to quibble about what it all means.  Eventually we will all get used to the situation and will move our national conversation on to other more important matters like the relative merits of Twitter, Facebook and Google +.  We will take solace in the fact that the rest of the world is in a bigger mess than we are and rich people all around the world will probably still invest in America because it is less risky than most other places.  If they insist on more interest on their loans we will pay it - after all it is just money.  We can always print more.

Our president wants to even the economic playing field within this country and, although he probably did not plan on this downgrade, it should be noted that it is helping to do just exactly that.  It is making all of us poorer by the minute.  Those among us who have managed to save a little money and put it in the stock market understand the situation better than those who have not managed to save anything, but it is affecting all of us - rich and poor alike.  This added to the other stupid policy decisions that we have been making is destroying the country that I love. 

I am sad and mad at the same time.  The S&P thing is not terribly important in the big picture.  What is important is that we are spending ourselves into oblivion and too many of us think that it is a good idea.  Ladies and gentlemen we are doing it to ourselves and that makes us the dumbest group of folks that I know.  Congress is out to lunch (they call it summer recess) and the President is off to Camp David for some relaxation after all of the hard work that he has been doing lately.  Nobody begrudges these folks a summer vacation, but there are a lot of Americans that wish that they had a job from which they could take a vacation.