Congress Should Resist Pressure From Wall Street on Debt Limit

By Richard Viguerie -- 7/22/11

The Washington/Wall Street axis is ramping-up the pressure on Tea Party backed members of the House to abandon their principles on the debt ceiling increase. While most observers see this as a sign of trouble for the House Freshmen in particular, I see a silver lining.

I know we are winning the debate when Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce trot out Karl Rove and other apologists for the status quo to demand conservatives back off our demand for a balanced budget and to cut and cap spending.

Rove was sitting at Bush’s elbow when the spending binge started, so he has zero credibility with conservatives on the issues of spending, the debt and deficit.

The credit rating agencies who have threatened to downgrade the United States if Congress fails to raise the debt limit are merely the paid lackeys of Wall Street. Where were they as the housing bubble inflated and then burst? Busily hauling in fees from the very companies whose securities they were supposed to rate, instead of giving an honest appraisal of the risks involved.

The record shows that the credit rating agencies protected their Wall Street fees instead of protecting the small investors who received no bailout from Congress.

Perhaps the most important question Tea Party backed Members of the House must ask is why the heck didn’t the credit rating agencies threaten to downgrade the United States’ ratings when the national debt was eight, ten or even twelve trillion dollars?

You and I and everyone else including members of the Washington/Wall Street cabal know that the United States reached the level of unsustainable debt long ago.  Is the debt any less unsustainable if Congress were to move the Maginot Line of the debt limit?  Are we suddenly more credit worthy if we increase the debt limit to $16 trillion?

The reality is that even if Congress raises the debt ceiling, no honest credit rating agency can ignore the fiscal problems this country faces and their impact on our ability to service our debt.

Far from being a threat to our credit rating, standing firm and demanding the passage of cut, cap and balance is the only way to maintain our four-star credit rating over the long term.