Newest Fox News piece: Don't Single Out Standard & Poor's for Being 'Political'

My newest Fox News piece starts this way:

If you think it's hard now to balance the budget, just wait until our credit rating gets trashed. Monday’s warning from the Standard & Poor’s rating agency -- that the U.S. government’s credit rating could be revised downward -- produced a firestorm in Washington. Republicans called it a "wake-up call," while the Obama administration's chief economist, Austan Goolsbee, lambasted Standard & Poor’s actions as purely "political."

Credit ratings aren’t just a matter of national pride. Less dependable, risky borrowers have to pay a higher interest rate to get people to buy their bonds. Right now the our government only has to pay 3.4% annual interest to borrow money for 10 years. But for countries who have had trouble paying their debts, interest rates are much higher. Portugal is forced to pay 9.1%, Ireland 9.8%, and Greece 14.6%.

But America's financial problems are catching up to what these other countries face all too quickly. . . .

For those interested, as of today, the debt per taxpayer is $128,650. The debt per citizen is $45,978 and per family of four it is $183,912.



UPDATE: "Obama administration officials tried to keep S&P rating at ‘stable’"

Is this appropriate behavior for the US government?

The Obama administration privately urged Standard & Poor’s in recent weeks not to lower its outlook on the United States — a suggestion the ratings agency ignored Monday, two people familiar with the matter said. . . .