Thursday’s Morning Joe featured a defensive segment where host Joe Scarborough and President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass teamed up to shove blame on Republicans for the recent credit downgrade of the United States received from Fitch.
Seeking to promote the lie that national debt doesn’t matter and that “Bidenomics” was working, Haass and Scarborough sought out a way to blame the “dysfunctional” state of American politics and name Republicans for that dysfunction, while leaving out any mention of Democratic responsibility.
Haass began saying it was “really odd” for Fitch, the credit ratings company, to downgrade the US credit because “the news is pretty good about the U.S. economy, both absolutely and relative to others.” He then went on to say that actually there might have been a good reason to downgrade the credit, because:
I think they are on to something. As you said, Joe, it's the massive accumulation of debt, but really what they focused in on was the politics of Washington. And it’s actually consistent with the story of the week. Which is, the dysfunctionality of American politics, the fact that we've come up to the edge several times. Republicans left town, virtually none of the spending bills got dealt with.
Haass thought he could just skirt over the fact that the US has an unprecedented, massive amount of debt that Biden and the Democrats recently added to with their infrastructure legislation and pandemic spending spree. Credit rating is an assessment of whether or not someone can pay back their debt, and the biggest factor into that was the size of the debt.
Fitch did cite political causes of the downgrade. But Haass dishonestly portrayed it as a result of Republicans trying to get spending under control, when that wasn’t what happened. Biden and Democrats made a show about refusing to sit at the negotiating table until the 11th hour earlier this year. Ultimately, the deal that was struck did little to affect the rate that spending was increasing.
This was supported by Scarborough’s own rant about how “they always do the deal.” Default was never really an option, which meant one way or another, liberals were going to get their boatloads of spending. So even if political instability was the reason why the credit was downgraded, it was Democrats’ fault.
They spent the money. They forced the debt limit to be raised. They put America in a situation where it couldn’t pay its debts, then called it “Bidenomics” and gaslighted the country into thinking the economy was great. And now, America has begun to pay the price of their financial recklessness and irresponsibility. But you won’t hear that from the media, just finger-pointing and pandering to the far left.
MSNBC’s blame game was sponsored by Chase and GoDaddy. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
08/03/24
6:55 AM ET
(…)
RICHARD HAASS: It was an odd time for Fitch to do this, the rating service, simply because the news is pretty good about the U.S. economy, both absolutely and relative to others. But if you take a step back, I think they are on to something. As you said, Joe, it's the massive accumulation of debt, but really what they focused in on was the politics of Washington.
And it’s actually consistent with the story of the week. Which is, the dysfunctionality of American politics, the fact that we've come up to the edge several times. Republicans left town, virtually none of the spending bills got dealt with. They're going to come back, and then what?
There's no confidence, essentially, that the politics of Washington will allow the United States to deal with these issues. And I think there, Fitch is on firmer ground, so I get what Jamie Dimon and Larry Summers who are all being critical. But I think if you pull back the strategic take on whether our politics are up to it and we're not just another economy. The dollar's role is essential to the world. The American economy is a quarter of the world's economy. So the real question is, will our politics get in the way of our economics? And I think that's a fair question.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, I mean, I think it's a fair question. But Gene, if you look at the recent past, you know the United States is going to take care of itself. I will say, and I said it on this show when everyone was like, "Oh, my god, the debt ceiling, we're going to spiral into" -- I was like, "No, they're not. No, they’re not."
Anybody that knows Washington, I've been through this time and again as a member of Congress, and then somebody in the media, they always do the deal. I don't care what side is bitching and moaning, and saying they're not going to join in.
They always get the call from their top CEOs, from their top contributors, from their top PACS, and the call goes something like this, "You're not really going to let the United States government default on your debt, are you, Mr. Speaker?" And whether that speaker is Newt Gingrich or Kevin McCarthy, Gene, it's not really a question.
EUGENE ROBINSON: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: It's not a question. It's an order, which is, do your damn business so my business doesn't get wrecked. I mean, so, that's why, again, Fitch is going, "Oh, they can't pay for their debt," it's ridiculous. It always gets resolved, and it always gets resolved, not because we close our eyes and hope it gets resolved, it always gets resolved because our $25 trillion economy and the people who run it demand it gets resolved.
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