Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) downplaying the risks of not raising the debt limit.
BLUNT: If you read any of the rating agencies — Standard & Poor and the other agencies — they don’t say we’re in trouble because of the debt ceiling or that we might default, they say we’re in trouble and we could be downgraded as an economy to invest in, in our bonds and everything, because we’re spending way too much money relative to our abilities to produce goods and resources.
No.
Either Senator Roy Blunt is complete liar, or, he is a victim of the vast Right-Wing Noise Machine which has been downplaying the risks of a debt default with reckless abandon. As a sitting U.S. senator he should know better either way.
Moody's, along with several other ratings agencies, have been warning about the consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling for months now.
Standard & Poor’s would cut the U.S. credit rating to its lowest level and Moody’s Investors Service said it will probably reduce its ranking if the government fails to increase the debt limit, leading to a default.
S&P would lower its sovereign top-level AAA ranking to D, the last rung on its scale if the U.S. can’t pay its debt, John Chambers, chairman of the company’s sovereign rating committee, said today. Moody’s said it would probably assign a position in the Aa range, or within three steps of its highest level.
This is obvious information to anyone who has even remotely been paying attention to the consequences which have been spelled out in no uncertain terms.
Here's former adviser to John McCain and Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi, who is predicting stronger economic growth in the near future, speaking almost two weeks ago on the consequences of failing to raise the debt limit.
"I think we go into recession and my forecast would be blown out of the water," he said. "I think if we get to August 2nd and there is no debt ceiling [increase] and there has to be significant spending cuts, I think even if Congress and the administration reverse themselves days later, I think the damage will have been serious and we'll probably be thrown into a recession."
That seems pretty clear to me, and being a former chief economic adviser to John McCain doesn't exactly make him a conspiracy-wielding leftie.
The utterly false claim made by Senator Roy Blunt is par for the course if you live and operate entirely within the conservative noise bubble where up is down, left is right, tax cuts create jobs, and government shutdowns and defaulting on the national debt are really no big deal.