Your editorial "After the downgrade" (Aug. 9) completely misses the real reason for the debt downgrade by Standard & Poor's.
Rather than a "rejection of doctrinaire politics" as you describe it, the downgrade expressed a totally realistic concern about our inability to manage the massive debt which has ballooned under this administration. While those tea party members who opposed any increase in the debt ceiling may have been short-sighted, their concerns were well-founded and are shared by most Americans.
Not only has government spending exploded to a record 25 percent of GDP under President Obama, but he and Senate Democrats have yet to come up with any specific plan to address the problem. The only detailed, comprehensive plan on the table isPaul Ryan's budget, which the House passed earlier this year.
The Democrats have had two responses: demagoguery and vilification of that plan's author, and higher taxes for the 5 percent of taxpayers who already pay 59 percent of the taxes. They fiercely resist any reasonable attempt to address genuine reform of the "entitlements" that represent the vast majority of federal spending.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has reluctantly concluded there is no chance of negotiating real reform with this administration. The 2012 election can't come soon enough.
Jack Neu, Annapolis