Rick Santelli: 'If it Wasn't for the Tea Party...We Would Have Been Rated BBB'

Rick Santelli: 'If it Wasn't for the Tea Party...We Would Have Been Rated BBB' By Noel Sheppard Created 08/08/2011 - 7:09pm

For over 24 hours, Obama advisers, Democrat senators, and terminally stupid ideologues in the media have been blaming Standard and Poor's downgrade of America's debt on the Tea Party.

On Monday, one of the only sane voices in the mainstream media stood up and said, "If it wasn't for the Tea Party, they would have passed the debt ceiling thumbs up, we would have been rated BBB" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

JOE KERNEN, CNBC: Alright. You know, Santelli, I never know with you. So, I don't know how much of the debate you've been able to watch, but what do you make of what's happened since Friday?

RICK SANTELLI, CNBC: You guys ever play sports? You ever been on an organized team?

SANTELLI: Okay. You know sometimes you get a couple of bad calls or the game didn't go your way but it should have? A good coach isn't going to come up to you and say, “Gee, you know, the other team really stinks. You know, I’m mad. We're going fight, we're going to appeal. We’re going to go to every league and every lawyer.”

No, you know what a good coach says? “It doesn't matter. Okay? We’re a better team than this. Just take this to motivate the team to move on to greater things.” You know, the treasury secretary, the eight percent excuses, you know, the blame Bush, blame the sun, blame this. You know what leadership means? It means that it doesn't really matter what S&P says. We all know deep inside that no country is the same as it was five years ago. And the market seems to be okay with it. And as for stocks going down we were already Ralph Cramden on thin ice. Now an infant jumped on our shoulders. It’s just even more weight.

In the end, in the end we need to address problems we know exist. A treasury secretary or a president should be out here not fighting S&P, not grabbing the other coach and slapping him around, taking the umpire behind the barn. He should be getting the team psyched to overcome.

See, I remember I had a professor in college. I wrote a great paper. Could never please this guy. But it made me better. Okay? We’re better than this. Don’t get caught up in the minutia. All this BS. We’re better than this. We need to prove it. We’re off the track. Whether we're better than some other country or not, the real issue is we're on the wrong path.

Blame the Tea Party? Geez, no wonder Kerry did so well in an election. If it wasn't for the Tea Party, they would have passed the debt ceiling thumbs up, we would have been rated BBB.

For those not familiar with the jargon, S&P's highest rating is AAA. From there, it goes much like school grades to AA+, AA, AA-, A+, A, A-, BBB+, BBB.

Everything BBB and higher is considered "investment grade." Everything below that is considered highly-speculative or "junk."

With that in mind, I think Santelli's being a little aggressive in saying that without the Tea Party, S&P would have downgraded our debt eight notches to BBB.

However, what the President, his Party, and their media minions seem to forget is that they wanted a clean vote on the debt ceiling, meaning one just on that issue without any other strings attached.

At this point it seems safe to say S&P would have at least downgraded us to AA+ had that been the case as we then would have raised the debt ceiling without any spending cuts regardless of how small they ended up being.

Maybe worse, Moody's and Fitch might have also reduced our rating last week adding more fuel to the fire that's happening on Wall Street.

With that in mind, although Santelli might have been a tad aggressive with his outrage, it is indeed absurd to blame this downgrade on the small but growing number of Tea Party legislators that refused a clean vote and insisted that spending cuts be a part of any debt ceiling agreement.

That liberal media members from coast to coast don't get this and instead echo the inflammatory and inaccurate Democrat talking point is indeed an outrage.

Well, Weiss Ratings, unnoticed, rated the US just above junk last month:

http://ml-implode.com/viewnews/2011-07-15_WeissRatingsDowngradesUnitedStatesDebttoCMinus.html

Weiss Ratings Downgrades United States Debt to C-Minus

2011-07-15 — weissratings.com

Weiss Ratings, an independent rating agency of U.S. financial institutions and sovereign debts, has downgraded the debt of the United States government from C to C-minus.

The C-minus rating for the U.S. reflects a continued deterioration in the weaknesses cited in the Weiss Ratings release of April 28, 2011, including heavy debt burdens, shaky international stability, and poor economic health.

Weiss Ratings senior financial analyst Gavin Magor commented: “Our downgrade today is not contingent on the outcome of the debt ceiling debate in Washington. It is driven exclusively by the numbers, which indicate that, in addition to a decline in the long-standing weaknesses we noted three months ago, the U.S. has already lost the golden halo that helped guarantee liquidity and acceptance of its government securities in global markets.”

On the Weiss Ratings scale, which ranges from A (excellent) to E (very weak), a C-minus rating is the approximate equivalent of a triple-B-minus on the scales used by other credit rating agencies, or approximately one notch above speculative grade (junk).

About Weiss: By adhering to its independent business model, Weiss outperformed Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s, A.M. Best and Duff & Phelps (now Fitch) in warning of future life and health insurance company failures according to a 1994 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), while also outperforming its competitors in identifying the safest insurers, according to its follow-up study using the GAO’s research methodology.

http://weissratings.com/Login.aspx?a=r

U.S. Sovereign Debt Rating Close to “Junk”

by Weiss Ratings | July 14, 2011

“Weiss Ratings is very close to downgrading the sovereign debt rating of the United States one more notch to a ‘C –’, which will put it just one notch above junk,” Martin Weiss, President of Weiss Ratings told CNBC on Wednesday.

“In April, Weiss Ratings gave the U.S. sovereign debt rating a ‘C’. A ‘C’ is equivalent to approximately a triple-B on the S&P, Moody’s and Fitch scales. Its two notches above junk, Weiss told CNBC in May. Weiss added that while the rating was weak, the debt situation was not in a danger zone that should trigger panic.

In yesterday’s interview with CNBC, Weiss responded to Moody’s Rating Agency placing their U.S. triple-A rating on review for a downgrade in the coming weeks on mounting concern that legislators will fail to raise the debt limit in time to avert potentially drastic effects.

The U.S. government is deadlocked in negotiations to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by August 2 before a potential default. President Obama announced on Tuesday, that failure to increase the debt ceiling would jeopardize payments to Social Security and Veteran’s benefit recipients.

Weiss believes a downgrade by the large rating agencies is long overdue, noting that the top-notch standard assigned to the U.S. is unfair to investors and savers as they are not being compensated for the level of risk they are taking.

“The U.S. has a huge debt load compared to most other countries,” he said. “And, has a very unstable economy over the last 10 years compared to most other countries.” The U.S. ratio of debt-to-gross domestic product is currently over 90 percent.

“The only thing that’s really holding up the U.S. debt rating is a widespread international acceptance for U.S. Treasury securities and nice strong liquid market. But even that might be coming into question,” according to Weiss.

Weiss is hopeful that a last minute deal will fend off a potential crisis for U.S. and world markets. He pointed out that three years ago the legislature’s failure to pass a bailout package sent markets into a tailspin, and forced Congress to sign off on it.

He said, “We might see a similar scenario here in the debt ceiling debate, a failure at first and then a desperate deal in the thirteenth hour to rescue the situation at the last minute.”

Based on the government’s continued failure to agree on terms for raising the U.S. debt ceiling and the looming deadline, Weiss Ratings is reviewing its current ‘C’, rating signaling consumers that a ‘C-’ rating might be a fairer assessment under the circumstances.

Any reason why the finance newspapers or Bloomberg.com keep chanting that Americans associate Democrates with good economy or that a Republican congress would not be positive for the econmy?

This is from a 2007 propaganda piece... mixed in with probable stupidity of the Clinton year idea was better than Bush for economy.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a2TWmuh3vHHI

``I'm starting to think there's a good possibility of recession,'' said poll respondent Roger Sharp, a retired procurement analyst in Milwaukie, Oregon. ``The housing industry is driving the economy down and people are starting to get laid off from jobs that have been around for a long time,'' said Sharp, 63, a registered Republican.

The poll brought bad news for his party: By 44 percent to 33 percent, Americans say Democrats would be better than Republicans at restarting growth should a recession occur.

Tax Cuts Opposed

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