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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Tuesday he's naming Sen. Patty Murray to co-chair a powerful "super committee" charged with finding more than $1 trillion in deficit cuts this fall. Murray will be joined by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Max Baucus, D-Mont., on the panel, which was established last week by hard-fought legislation to increase the national debt.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex., and his son, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., both blasted Tea Party critics on Monday for suggesting that the conservative movement with which they're both linked may have had something to do with America's recent credit downgrade by the ratings agency Standard & Poor's. The elder Paul, a longtime lawmaker, staunch libertarian, and presidential candidate, decried the allegations as an "attempt to scapegoat" Tea Party lawmakers. He pinned the downgrade on the Washington establishment. "This attempt to scapegoat folks who recognize that our debt is out of control and that we must change course should not be...

Power Play White House: Downgrade Doesn’t Matter, Unless It’s The Tea Party’s Fault By Chris Stirewalt Published August 08, 2011 | FoxNews.com * Print * Email * Share * Comments * * * * Text Size Team Obama Downplays Downgrade, But Blames Tea Party Too “Look at the history of this – the fact of the matter is that this is essentially a Tea Party downgrade. The Tea Party brought us to the brink of a default.” -- David Axelrod, top political consultant to President Obama, in an appearance on “Face the Nation.” The decision by Standard and Poor’s to...

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Little is known about key details that led Standard & Poor's to downgrade U.S. debt late Friday, despite its outsized repurcussions. While the move knocking U.S. debt down a notch from the lofty AAA rating has exacerbated an already skittish stock market and drawn criticism from the White House, key details are a mystery. S&P doesn't say who, exactly, made the decision at the company; what kind of weight they gave U.S. politics versus ability to pay; or to what extent they felt pressured to downgrade the United States in response to criticism of its downgrades of...

.....Yet, as S&P has explained, unlike the administration and the CBO, it focuses on a three-to-five year window. S&P finds that this timeframe, which is more in the control of the current Congress and president, is a more reliable predictor of financial health than illusory ten-year forecasts....

DNC chairwoman blames Tea Party 'tyrants' for US credit rating downgrade By 
Alicia M. Cohn - 08/08/11 12:38 PM ET The head of the Democratic National Committee joined Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Monday in casting blame for the U.S. credit downgrade on the Tea Party movement. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) quoted Kerry's comments made Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press" and noted, "Truer words never spoken." Kerry, commenting Sunday on Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the national credit rating from AAA to AA+ on Friday, cast the downgrade as a reflection of the influence of the Tea Party...

Obama adviser David Axelrod has started calling Standard & Poor's major diss of America's credit rating the "Tea Party downgrade," which certainly sounds like an insult against the Tea Party. Yet the Partiers themselves seem to be embracing Axelrod's wannabe-pejorative as a compliment. The above video, posted by the grassroots/progressive/not Scott Walker-supporting PAC We Are Wisconsin and elaborated upon by Mother Jones, was taken at an event hosted by the Tea Party Express in the town of Fond du Lac. The Tea Party's been riding its big glorious bus all over the Cheesehead State, trying to get people to vote...

Sen. John Kerry on Sunday laid the blame for the recent downgrade of the nation’s credit rating at the feet of conservative House Republicans. “I believe this is, without question, the tea party downgrade,” Mr. Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Standard & Poor’s rating agency on Friday dropped the U.S. credit rating from AAA to “AA+, questioning the ability of leaders in Washington to deal seriously with the nation’s debt crisis.

WATERLOO, Iowa --- In her first return to her birthplace since announcing her campaign, Republican president candidate Michele Bachmann the country's credit downgrade by Standard and Poor's "a reckoning" for President Obama and Washington. The downgrade and stock market losses at the end of the week were signs she was right to reject raising the debt ceiling and instead push for large spending cuts, Bachmann told a crowd of about 100 people Saturday at the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum. "Someone had to stand up and say no, someone had to stand up and stay stop, and that's exactly what...

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on NBC's "Meet the Press" and Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod on CBS' "Face the Nation" lead a new propaganda push against the Tea Party movement. First they were "astro-turf", then racist, then stupid, then violent, then dangerous, then terrorists, and now they're responsible for the S & P downgrade even though the Tea Party was pushing for the exact entitlement reforms that would have avoided the downgrade. It's obvious that the White House is fearful that the president will be blamed for the unprecedented downgrade of America's bond rating.

(CBS News) Former White House adviser David Axelrod on Sunday pinned responsibility for the recent U.S. economic downgrade on the Tea Party movement, arguing that the group's political "brinksmanship" during debt ceiling negotiations "brought us to the brink of a default" -- and that, subsequently, "this is essentially a Tea Party downgrade." In an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," Axelrod, currently a campaign strategist for President Obama, said the U.S. economic downgrade was "largely a political analysis" and that "there's a broad consensus that [the U.S.] is still the safest place to invest your money." Nevertheless, he argued, the...

Axelrod: This was a 'tea party downgrade' By Meghashyam Mali - 08/07/11 11:37 AM ET Top Obama strategist David Axelrod criticized Republicans over their handling of the debt-ceiling negotiations which he argued led to Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the nation’s credit rating Friday. This was a “tea party downgrade,” said Axelrod on CBS News’ Face the Nation. Axelrod said S&P’s decision was “largely a political analysis.” “And that's what we should focus on because what they were saying is they want to see the political system work. They want to see a sense of compromise. They want to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House adviser is blaming the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating on tea party Republicans, whom he says were unwilling to compromise on how to reduce the federal debt. The adviser to President Barack Obama, David Axelrod, tells CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday .. ... .. also criticized GOP presidential candidates for not speaking up in favor of compromise.

A top Obama adviser blames tea party for downgrade WASHINGTON — Who's to blame for the U.S. debt-ceiling mess? Politicians and political advisers took to the airwaves Sunday to point fingers, mostly at each other. David Axelrod, a top political adviser to President Barack Obama, blames the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating on tea party Republicans for being unwilling to compromise on how to reduce the federal debt. The Obama campaign strategist tells CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday that the decision by the Standard & Poor's credit agency to downgrade the U.S. from AAA to AA+ for the...

MoveOn.org drives new liberal catch phrase: ‘Tea party downgrade’ Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller 43 mins ago The left-wing activist group MoveOn.org picked up the new liberal slogan bashing conservatives for Standard & Poor’s U.S. credit rating downgrade: “Tea Party downgrade.” President Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry both used the phrase on Sunday talk shows. In a Sunday afternoon email to supporters, MoveOn.org accused tea partiers of being responsible for the first-ever credit downgrade in U.S. history. “This ‘tea party downgrade’ is a shameful blow to our nation’s honor and risks throwing...

Kerry Blames The Tea Party For Credit Downgrade By Ben Wolfgang-The Washington Times1 Sen. John Kerry on Sunday laid the blame for the recent downgrade of the nation’s credit rating at the feet of conservative House Republicans. “I believe this is, without question, the tea party downgrade,” Mr. Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Standard & Poor’s rating agency on Friday dropped the U.S. credit rating from AAA to “AA+, questioning the ability of leaders in Washington to deal seriously with the nation’s debt crisis. The Obama administration’s debt-ceiling proposal, which included more spending cuts than the...