Will the S&P downgrade be a wake up call for Washington?

It was clearly a win for the Tea Party. They would have preferred a more complete disaster by not raising the debt limit. I can remember when we used to call such people "anarchists". Now we just call them Republicans.

First of all, Standard & Poor is a joke. I'm not exactly sure why anyone even listens to these guys and judging by the behavior of the DOW, people don't. As the DOW fell, sales of US Treasury Securities went up. Which means, people still trust the US to pay them back. Let's be clear too, S&P is the same rating agency that deemed the toxic mortgage assets as triple A. They said the same thing about Liemann Bro's, AIG and Enron up to a month before they collapsed. It's obvious these individuals are terrible at their job or the government didn't bribe them enough. The DOW, however, is dropping in response to the a global meltdown in the market not specifically to our rating drop. And our rating drop is not based on any kind mathematical equation, it's based on some sort of voodoo analysis of our political discord and our Congressional gridlock when issues arise. One thing does ring true, in regard to the downgrade and our political problems, is that the Tea Party anarchists are certainly changing the way government operates. The rest of the political apparatus need to come to terms with the intentions these morons and be cautious of their motives.

They are obviously not in government to "run" it, they are in government to bring it down.

Rand Paul was quoted saying: "Blaming the Tea Party for America's debt crisis and downgrade is like blaming the fireman for fires."

I wonder if he ever read Fahrenheit 451....

No, I fear it will just be used as mud-slinging material for both sides.. with us...the American people caught in the middle. :(

The United States maintained a AAA rating through the Great Depression and two World Wars. Now all of the sudden they've determined we can't pay our bills? Fuck off!

Here's my thing. The S&P is a credit rating agency, their only mandate is rate investments. Agree with Obama, disagree with Obama, agree with the Tea Partiers, disagree with the Tea Partiers, that is not their role, it is not for them to say. Is the United States going to live up to it's obligations? Of course it will, it always has and it always will and they know that, and that is their only charge. How we do it is not for them to decide. But because of their actions, now, today, millions if not billions of dollars hard working Americans held in 401ks and retirement funds have now been wiped away, they are gone. And if you don't believe it is a purely political move, after Warren Buffet blasted them for it this weekend, they downgraded Berkshire Hathaway today.

I hope so because Washington needs to send them a bill for all the damage they have causes for no reason!!!

Before or after their August vacation?

nothing can move right-wing ideology
there is a kind of ignorance that would
burn the house down before relenting

what i hope and look forward to is a
wake up of the voting public
and those voters remove the extreme
members of congress

2012 elections will be the reveal of who
wakes up...

*prelude is wisconsin on tuesday, aug 9

This downgrade from S&P will most definitely not be a wake up call to Washington. Politicians , as usual, are in complete and utter denial of the ramifications of the situation. They want to blame S&P for being crooks, which they are too, but it doesn't minimize the faults of our political system. Washington might wake up when we are all living outside our homes in cardboard boxes. Or outside of their homes...

Politics as usual is what got our asses downgraded. Hopefully, that serves as a good wake up call to those D.C. fat cats. Because the next wake up call is going to come from angry mobs with baseball bats and molotovs.

I agree Leen61, more of the same until the tea party faction of the GOP is marginalized and its members voted from office. Or, they could come to their senses and start acting/voting rationally. Fat chance on that last one!

This won't make a difference in Washington. It will just be more of the same.