In reality we should be downgraded

As I've said before, in the political world, spending has no real consequences because we are America, and we have to spend a lot of money. In the real world, spending and debt have consequences. At some point the real world will intrude on the political world and our house of cards will come tumbling down. Before, following a recession, we could depend on economic recovery to increase revenues and offset the extravagant spending, but we might not recovery economically for a long, long time. We've finally become trapped in a downward spiral in which structural unemployment is a reality, and government intervention has become so great that businesses are not willing to gamble in America.

We can't tax our way out, and, if we try, it will only increase the speed of the downward spiral. We're in a loop, and unless we pull ourselves out of the loop and make systemic changes to government, we'll hit bottom soon. The credit rating agencies would downgrade us right now if they simply took an objective approach, because, as it is, America is a bad credit risk.