S&P head: Agency may downgrade U.S. again

[sasha031]

The head of Standard & Poor's sovereign ratings said Sunday that the agency may downgrade the U.S. again. "Given the economic and political situation in the U.S., which will we see, an upgrading back to AAA or further downgrades?" Fox News' Chris Wallace asked David Beers.

"We have a negative outlook on the rating and that means we think that the risk currently for the rating are to the downside," Beers said While explaining what the U.S. could do to get its AAA rating back, the S&P official mentioned entitlement cuts but ignored the agency's call to raise revenues.

"Does any compromise have to have entitlement reform and revenue increases to be credible?" Wallace wondered. "The key thing is, yes, entitlement reform is important because entitlement is the biggest -- are the biggest component of spending and they are the part of spending where the cost pressures are greatest," Beers replied.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/07/sp-head-agency-may-downgrade-u-s-again/

[originalpckelly]

1. And of course, this is on focks.

In other places S&P has said they need to raise taxes.

[former9thward]

13. No in their official statement they mention both revenues and entitlement containment.

[Karmadillo]

2. Let's have reasonable tax increases for five years, raise the cap on Social Security,

impose cost controls on health care though single payer, cut the defense budget by 60%, and then see if we need to cut entitlements. Entitlements didn't get us into this predicament and cutting them shouldn't be on the frontline of reform.

[bhikkhu]

4. Exactly - raising the cap answers both sides of the problem

Of course, it has as little chance as anything else that would work, given all the teabaggers that got into congress...

[Skidmore]

3. Who are these people and why do they get to say?

Who are the names behind S&P?

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Ah yes, if I got 100 dollars for each time citizens of

insert country here asked that question.... welcome to the hell that many OTHER countries have lived through

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. after listening to McCain this morning, color me surprised

NOT

[dana_b]

7. yes - because this

asshole and his buddies are set for life, they can now ALSO hold the U.S. (and a good part of the world) hostage too.

[Gin]

8. should have been prosecuted for fraud....too late now..

they feel emboldened....makes me sad that we missed the opportunity to nip these crooks in the bud...now it's too late. (IMO)

[dana_b]

9. I agree

woulda, shoulda, coulda... we blew it.

[Horse with no Name]

12. They should have been prosecuted, bushco should have been prosecuted

amongst many others. Lost opportunities that will haunt our nation for decades.

[mmonk]

10. OK, time to burn this agency.

There is no way the architects of bogus ratings that got us into this mess should carry any weight. After my virtual townhall today with Daniel Ellsberg, I'm going to work on this.

[Marr]

11. Yep-- their rep said the same thing about "entitlement reform" in an interview I saw

a couple of days ago.

The crooks are pushing a political agenda. It's the same agenda the president is pushing, by the way. Remember, he did his damndest to get them their SS/Medicare cuts in this debt ceiling charade. He was only blocked by the loony Tea Party brigade who actually wanted a default.

[Dawson Leery]

14. Moody's and Fitch have reconfirmed America's AAA rating.

S&P is doing the dirty work for some powerful people(political).

[mmonk]

15. Yep and the people are falling for it and the media framing and the

political parties' posturing.

[Gin]

16. maybe Moodys, S&P and Fitch should be on the ballots....

am listening to the panel on Cspan3 with all 3 represented....Moodys has the US gov on watch status.....

one panelist Jules Kroll was very interesting....he has a small ratings firm....stated he doesn't think the ratings agencies should be able to rate governments around the world...they aren't qualified...it's not their job..

[mmonk]

17. Kroll is right.

The only thing that should be considered is if the country will pay their bonds or not, not whether they are Milton Freidman and Ronald Reagan based.