Does anyone really think that credit ratings in faraway China, a nation servicing much of the United States' debt, or the precipitous AAA to AA+ downgrade by Standard and Poor's will set off a firestorm of compromise throughout the halls of Congress?
If elected officials, whose primary job is to get reelected, showed foot-dragging reluctance to agree on necessary cuts, what effect will far away and near discredit credit agencies have?
Who keeps Congress accountable? The voters, the constituents, the press, and now . . .the galvanized Tea Party coalition, which wrestled cuts of greater magnitude than heretofore witnessed in the history of Capitol Hill.
It is degrading to assume that the United States should get jittery because one out of three has downgraded our debt, with two in the wings still having high hopes.
It is also degrading to assume that pundits across the spectrum actually assume that unsuspected agencies will coerce status-conscious Congressmen to give up the gamesmanship that is gaming up this nation's long-term fiscal future.
We the voters must heed the call to arms signaled by the private sector's growing lack of confidence in this nation's capacity to manage its debt. We call the shots, we elected the politicians, we tell them what they must do. If nothing else, the legislators in Washington have only one degrading downgrade to fear: and that is getting thrown out of office by disaffected constituents demanding real change.