By Howard Rich – In addition to preserving the inalienability of our individual liberties, limited government ideology has always revolved around the belief that the invisible hand of the free market creates more prosperity for more people than command-and-control economic wealth redistribution. Actually this isn’t so much a belief (or theory) as it is an incontrovertible economic law. Unfortunately, this [...]

By Robert Romano – AA is now Barack Obama’s scarlet letter.  He is the first President to preside over a downgrade of our full faith and credit, and it is owed to no less than Obama’s $1 trillion annual expansion of the now $14.5 trillion national debt, which will top 100 percent of the $15 trillion Gross Domestic Product in [...]

For the first time in modern history, the U.S. credit rating is less than AAA. S&P’s has downgraded the U.S. credit rating to AA+. S&P’s specifically called out the debt plan that Congress passed and Obama signed earlier this week. According to S&P’s, the plan dos not go far enough in dealing with out of control spending and ever rising [...]

By Robert Romano – In a recent column for the Wall Street Journal, Holman Jenkins criticized rating agencies for threatening to downgrade the United States’ Triple-A credit rating because, he writes, “the debt to bondholders will be the last to be dishonored.” As such, the U.S. is nowhere near default. That may be so — for now. But the reason [...]

Boehner’s debt plan is in jeopardy in the House of Representatives. Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan has come out against the plan. Rep. Jordan stated, “While I thank the Speaker for fighting for Republican principles, I cannot support the plan that was presented to House Republicans this afternoon.” Further, Jordan told the Washington Times, “There are not [...]

By Robert Romano  – Can’t these guys count? Credit rating agencies Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch have explicitly warned that if Congress does not enact a fiscal consolidation plan totaling at least $4 trillion over the next ten years, the nation’s Triple-A credit rating will be downgraded. In this context, on July 25, competing proposals were released by the House and [...]

By Bill Wilson - With White House talks ended over Obama’s insistence on job-killing tax increases, it is time for House Speaker John Boehner to turn up the pressure for spending cuts on the Senate. On July 22, just minutes after defeating the House-passed “Cut, Cap, and Balance” plan to trim the deficit by $5.8 trillion over the next ten years [...]

By Rick Manning - ”[T]he fact is you can’t solve our problem unless you do what ‘Cut, Cap, and Balance’ wants to do. So, it doesn’t matter what the polls are. We’ve got to fix our country, and this is the only viable plan right now that will do that, and I will bet you a Porterhouse steak if it lands [...]

By Bill Wilson - According to a recent analysis by Reuters’ Steven Johnson and Daniel Bases, a threatened credit rating downgrade of U.S. treasuries by S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch could drag down state and municipal bonds, leading to higher borrowing costs at a time when governments are already strapped for cash. “All three major ratings agencies have said the top ratings [...]

Senator Tom Coburn, a member of the ‘Gang of Six,’ has admitted that the bill, if all of its $3.7 trillion in savings over ten years were even realized, would only  represent 40 percent of the solution to restoring order to the nation’s fiscal house.  Coburn said even if enacted, Congress is ‘going to have to change it because this [...]