Intellectual dishonesty and politicking led to debt downgrade

When Sen. John Kerry called Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating "The tea party downgrade," he illustrated perfectly the intellectual dishonesty and absurd politicking that has given Congress its stellar 14 percent approval rating.

If Senator Kerry can honestly conclude that it was tea party that caused the downgrade and not men like him who voted for two unfunded wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the failed stimulus, who applauded for President George W. Bush's unfunded Plan D, who voted for the health care reform bill that is racking up debt even faster than the wars, who voted to table the only plan that met the S&P's criteria of $4 trillion in cuts, then it's no wonder we're in the mess we're in.

If it were true that ratings agencies downgrade because of squabbling, then Exxon or GE might get downgraded because of hard-headedness in the boardroom. Yet I defy anyone to show one such instance. Ratings agencies downgrade companies and countries because their debt to asset ratio is pathetic. When the 2012 elections roll around, our debt will equal 115 percent of GDP, thanks in large part to Senator Kerry.

Fred Pasek, Frederick