Democrats tried hard to pin S&P’s U.S. credit downgrade on the Tea Party yesterday. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., on Meet the Press, and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and former White House adviser David Axelrod on Face the Nation, all pushed a “Tea Party downgrade” storyline on their respective Sunday shows. The Democrats want independents to believe that it was Republican unwillingness to compromise on taxes that led to the near government shutdown over the debt limit. But as Rep. Paul Ryan’s, R-Wis., appearance on Fox News Sunday demonstrates, that is just not true.
Host Chris Wallace asked Ryan if he would be open to revenue increases if he serves on the debt-limit-deal’s Super Congress: “If you were on that committee and you get a deal, let’s say $3 or $4 in spending cuts, in entitlement cuts, for every $1 in revenue increases, and the revenue increases came through tax reform where you lower rates but you also close the loop holes and some of the deductions and use some of that for revenue. And Speaker Boehner agreed to use 800 billion dollars of that at least temporarily, would you be open minded to including some of that revenue as part of the debt deal?”
Ryan responded: “It all depends on the spending side of the ledger. … The answer I believe is yes. The question really is, and we have yet see a response to this question, are we doing the things we need to do to get the spending line down, down to 20 percent of GDP. … If we are convincingly restructuring these entitlement programs and getting that spending line down to meet that revenue line, then can you have higher revenue growth through more economic growth and tax reform, yes — the answer is yes.”
Ryan’s main concern is cutting spending and simplifying taxes, revenue levels are of secondary importance. And earlier in the program Ryan identified exactly where the main spending problems come from: “The president just created two health care entitlements, expanded Medicaid a third and then put this new rationing board in charge of Medicare. And so, they are unwilling to open up and restructure these entitlements which according to S&P are the primary drivers of this debt. … I don’t think this committee is going to achieve a full fix to our problems because Democrats have never wanted to put their health care bill on the table.”
This is completely consistent with how Ryan explained his vote against the Bowles-Simpson deficit commission plan: “Their proposal is a serious and credible plan, but I cannot support it. We must address the explosive growth of our health care entitlement programs at the structural level to meet the fiscal and economic challenges confronting this nation. This plan not only lacks needed structural reforms, but would in fact take us in the wrong direction on health care by accelerating the adverse consequences of the President’s health care law.”
The biggest barrier to a credible long-term debt reduction plan is not taxes: It is Obamacare.
Around the Bigs
The Wall Street Journal, Investors in Asia Express Pessimism, but Not Panic : Asian markets were down slightly on the first full day of trading after S&P downgraded U.S. credit. But yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury noted actually fell on the day showing that despite what S&P says, actual investors still U.S. debt as safe.
The Los Angeles Times, Gold soars to record high on global fears: Gold futures jumped 4.2% to $1,718 an ounce in Asian markets Monday, a record high. Gold is now up 21% year to date.
The Washington Post, Origins of the debt showdown: Completely ignoring the fact that Democrats purposely chose not to raise the debt limit in December 2010 for the sole purpose of dividing Tea Party freshman from their Republican leadership, The Washington Post tries to pin the entirety of the debt limit showdown on Republicans.
The Washington Post, Geithner tells Obama he will remain as Treasury secretary: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told President Obama Friday he plans to remain in his job through 2012. The White House had pressured him to stay after concluding it would be difficult to confirm a successor.
The Wall Street Journal, Unions Walk Out at Verizon: Despite the fact that the land-line industry is shrinking and their union has shrunk by half since their 2000 strike, 45,000 unionized Verizon workers struck Sunday. “This may be the last big strike we see in the land-line business,” Paul Secunda, a Marquette University associate law professor who advised Verizon during the 2000 strike, told The Journal.
The New York Times, Overriding a Key Education Law: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced Friday that he will unilaterally override the math and reading proficiency requirements of the No Child Left Behind law. The Times calls it: “the most sweeping use of executive authority to rewrite federal education law since Washington expanded its involvement in education in the 1960s.”
Campaign 2012
Bachmann: Ryan Lizza, author of The New Republic profile that helped end former Sen. George Allen’s, R-Va., Senate career, has a profile of Rep. Michele Bachmann in the latest New Yorker. Lizza says Bachmann’s rise, “is based on a collection of right-wing convictions, beliefs, and resentments that she has regularly broadcast from television studios and podiums since 2006, when she was first elected to Congress.”
Romney: Ed Conrad, a former fellow top executive at Bain Capital, has admitted he is the one behind a shell corporation that donated $1 million to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s Super PAC. Through third parties, Conrad created a dummy firm, funneled $1 million to Romney through it, and then closed the firm weeks later without it conducting any other business. Paul Ryan, associate legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, who filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice earlier this week, told National Journal: “The FEC and DOJ will still have to determine whether the actions to date violated federal law and, if so, pursue appropriate penalties to deter such conduct in the future.”
Pawlenty: Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty used his final appearance on Fox News Sunday before the Ames Straw Poll to attack Bachmann: “I said her record was non-existent. … That’s not disputable. That’s a matter of fact.”
Righty Playbook
RedState’s Erick Erickson links to S&P’s downgrade statement and points out “Only the Tea Party Had a $4 Trillion Plan.”
John Carney posts a slide show on What Happens After A US Downgrade.
At No Left Turns William Voegeli explains why Jacob Weisberg’s latest article on Slate clarifies why there is a Tea Party: “If the American people don’t agree with him it’s because they’re stupid, and our experiment in self-government cannot possibly survive such stupidity.”
The Examiner’s Mark Tapscott details the flaws of last week’s NYT/CBS poll on the Tea Party and the debt deal: “the single most important characteristic that determines the credibility of any survey is the randomness of its sample selection process. This particular survey is based on re-interviews with people who previously participated in two separate, earlier surveys, one by the Times and another by CBS. Thus, the people questioned in this survey were not selected randomly.”
Lefty Playbook
Emory University psychology professor Drew Westen’s Sunday New York Times op-ed What Happened to Obama? is being widely shared on the left. Paul Krugman links and comments: “I am very much in sympathy with Drew Westen’s lament about Obama’s unwillingness or inability to change the narrative. I went back to look at my own reactions to the inaugural speech; I’m sorry to say that my misgivings at the time have proved all too justified.”
Digby worries that the “Madman” portrayal of the Tea Party makes Republicans like Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, look reasonable by comparison.
Talking Points Memo’s Eric Kleefeld previews The Moment Of Truth For The Wisconsin State Senate Recalls.
