Five weeks ago, on February 8, Bloomberg.com brought us assurances from Treasury Secretary Timmy Geithner concerning the stability of the U.S. debt rating.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. is in no danger of losing its AAA debt rating even though the Obama administration has predicted a $1.6 trillion budget deficit in 2010. “Absolutely not,” Geithner said, when asked in an ABC News interview broadcast yesterday whether a downgrade is a concern. “That will never happen to this country.”
Geithner stated that, as soon as unemployment declines, “the U.S. plans to rein in the deficit.” This assurance came, of course, in the midst of a push to pass healthcare legislation that guarantees to increase the national debt, but who’s counting? With economic growth coming over the next four years, the former New York Fed president said five weeks ago that deficit reduction “is within our capacity to do.” Capacity differs from intent, though.
Today, there’s another Bloomberg.com story about the U.S. bond rating. It’s entitled “U.S., U.K. Move Closer to Losing Rating, Moody’s Says:”
March 15 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. and the U.K. have moved “substantially” closer to losing their AAA credit ratings as the cost of servicing their debt rose, according to Moody’s Investors Service…
Under the ratings company’s so-called baseline scenario, the U.S. will spend more on debt service as a percentage of revenue this year than any other top-rated country except the U.K., and will be the biggest spender from 2011 to 2013, Moody’s said today in a report. “We expect the situation to further deteriorate in terms of the key ratings metrics before they start stabilizing,” [Managing Director of sovereign risk at Moody’s in London] Cailleteau said. “This story is not going to stop at the end of the year. There is inertia in the deterioration of credit metrics.”
Unemployment remains near 10%. The debt level continues to rise out of control.
Congress is on the verge of voting on a healthcare bill that would send the debt level even higher, faster. And the MSM is…well, where is it?