Paul Ryan stands by remark blaming Obama for U.S. credit downgrade

On Thursday afternoon, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney ran into his running mate, Paul Ryan -- and told him he set a high bar for a successful speech.

Ryan brought the delegates to their feet Wednesday at the Republican National Convention with a sharp critique of the president's economic record.

He spoke to CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley about several of the points he made in the speech.

Among the barbs was a suggestion that President Obama was responsible for a downgrade of the U.S. government's credit rating by that ratings firm Standard and Poor's during a budget and debt ceiling debate in Congress last summer.

Pelley confronted Ryan on that point, reading from the S&P's own report saying that it was Republicans' refusal to accept any revenue-raising measures that prompted the credit downgrade.

Watch a clip of the exchange below:

[hayseedbears]

Ryan is a Tea Party member. He takes his marching orders from the likes of the 44 billion dollars and growing Koch brothers who fund the movement. He is a puppet to the super wealthy. Do no believe anything this man says.

[purplestates]

At the time of the debt ceiling debate, Paul Ryan was not concern about U.S financial downgrade. New York Times

[purplestates]

John McBride wrote, Seattle, WA

Here are a few hard truths:

1. Clinton had us on the road to a balanced budget and paying off the national debt
2. Republicans slashed taxes on the wealthy, started two wars, expanded government more than any time since the Great Depression, borrowed to pay for everything, and ran up the debt more than all other presidents combined
3. Republicans now want to pay for everything by reducing "entitlements" as they prefer to call them, but increasing military spending
4. They want to cut taxes for the wealthy further and do away with health insurance
5. They promise if they have to start another war, led by a president who lacked the moral courage to volunteer for Vietnam, although he had the "backbone" to protest for that war

I'd go on but I'll have plenty of opportunity before the election, and the list of hard truths is long and painful.

I'm unforgiving.

[Jayhawker1]

Funny, this business publication found it:
http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-ryan-speech-fact-check-on-aaa-credit-rating-2012-8

[venusvegasvada]

How many bills has this guy passed in 14 years in the Senate?

For that, how much has he made while in the employ of the American people?

I wonder just how much money it's cost us for the few bills he's passed.

[aalugbin21]

@chark1022

I have enclosed the updated copy of what S&P sent out. The one you had was their preliminary draft. It references both parties, but highlights the House obstinacy in particular.

We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process. We also believe that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration agreed to this week falls short of the amount that we believe is necessary to stabilize the
general government debt burden by the middle of the decade.

The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy. Despite this year's wide-ranging debate, in our view, the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge, and, as we see it, the resulting
agreement fell well short of the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program that some proponents had envisaged until quite recently. Republicans and Democrats have only been able to agree to relatively modest savings on discretionary spending while delegating to the Select Committee decisions on more comprehensive measures. It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options. In addition, the plan envisions only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability.

Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act. Key macroeconomic assumptions in the base case scenario include trend real GDP growth of 3% and consumer price inflation near 2% annually over the decade.

[forumcomments]

This is a non issue. There are articles written by many publications after the rating down grade that support the debt and dysfunction as thew reason.

..
Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S.'s AAA credit rating for the first time, slamming the nation's political process and criticizing lawmakers for failing to cut spending or raise revenue enough to reduce record budget deficits.

[forumcomments]

Link for actual article. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-06/u-s-credit-rating-cut-by-s-p-for-first-time-on-deficit-reduction-accord.html

[forumcomments]

Part of S&P press elease.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/08/sp-downgrades-us-credit-rating-from-aaa-for-first-time.html

The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics.

[WHAT-IS-HE-SMOKING]

This is an issue because Ryan brought it up.

[QuestForTheTruth]

Chark1022 - your own quote of the S&P statement supports Scott Pelley. You quoted the S&P: We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an
agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process.

• "Prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling": The Tea Party Republicans in the house were the ones who wanted to let the US default on the debt and pushed the agreement to the last minute not the President or the Democrats.
• "near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements": The President and the Democrats were the ones who agreed to compromise on this point.
• "reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed . " The position of the Republicans from Grover Norquist, to Paul Ryan is no tax increase what so ever even on the rich.

According to your own quoted statement, the S&P's reasons for downgrading the United States was caused by the Republicans not President Obama or the Democrats.

You are correct about "Wake Up America". It isn't the media "Scott Pelley and CBS News" that is lying here by deception or omission. It is people who "cherry pick" the facts and draw conclusions that match their own belief systems.

[Repubs_R_Fiscal_Liberals]

by atlanta30305
However the country has a spending problem...not a taxation problem

---------

GOOD Dittohead!

Rush thanks you for the extra advertising dollars you generate from his sponsors!

Try that on your own household, why don't you?

[T_Velocity]

Actually, we do have a spending problem...but guess what...it has NOTHING to do with Revenues. The stupidist thing on both sides is to equate Revenues with Spending.

The government has a lot of waste (pssst, so does almost any major corporation--and the way they usually deal with it is to lay off workers--short term effective, but pretty stupid long term). Cutting revenues will not decrease waste. Spending smarter does.

[Lindag20]

That was quite an interview and Ryan was on the hook. S&P said it was because CONGRESS wouldn't make any effort to raise revenue (led by the Republicans) that caused the downgrade. Ryan's weak efforts to lie his way out of it was amusing.

[atlanta30305]

S&P actually said the problem is gridlock. Scott Pelley along with CBS, ABC, and NBC all seem to want to try and pin the blame for gridlock on Republicans. However the country has a spending problem...not a taxation problem. President Obama and his party refuse to pass a budget, refuse to propose spending cuts, refuse to lead....and that is the REAL reason for the continued decline of this nation's credit rating as well as our economy.

Ryan is actually THE ONLY man that has been courageous enough to try and address these issues, and he will be rewarded in the fall of 2012.

[T_Velocity]

atlanta30305

Nope. Obama and the democrats offered MANY spending cuts...they also wanted to CUT certain peoples "tax relief"...that's when the GOP refused to budge.