By Lynn Hatter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-981549.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – Discussion of the U.S. credit downgrade and subsequent market free fall is sparking conversations on what to do about a political impasse in Washington and how to fix the nation's finances. As Lynn Hatter reports a group of local democrats and a former congressman held a town hall meeting in Tallahassee Wednesday evening to get a clearer picture of what all is going on.
Recently the nation raised the debt ceiling but failed to cut spending enough to get costs under control. That led one major credit rating agency, Standard and Poor's, to downgrade the nation's credit. Instead of a Triple-A rating, the U.S. is now a AA-plus. Speaking before a group of local Democratic Party members and activists inside the City Commission Chambers, former Congressman Alan Boyd says the nation has got to get control of itself financially.
"You can't just do this with cutting domestic spending or cutting Medicare. You have to do that on the tax side as well."
Congress passed a 1.5-trillion dollar package of cuts to the nation's budget in a compromise plan to raise the debt ceiling, but that fell far below the four-trillion in reductions that S&P said the nation needed. The last election cycle swept in a wave of Tea Party-backed lawmakers. Boyd, a conservative Blue-Dog Democrat who lost his seat in Congress to Republican Representative Steve Southerland, says the Tea Party has brought to light a problem the nation has to address sooner than later.
"I don't belittle their place or what they've done. To have this debate and get people in the country to focus on what the real issues are is a good thing, and the tea party is mostly responsible for that."
But Tallahassee resident Bill Miller says the recent debt ceiling talks reveal frustration with the state of the economy and a persistently high unemployment rate.
"The debt ceiling business is essentially manufactured by the Republican party to avoid the real problem. What I'm saying is, we should be focused on jobs. Kids getting out of school today, where are they going to work? We've got to face that and deal with it. Once we do and put these kids to work, things like Social security, the funds start rolling in, income taxes, money starts flowing again."
Christian Camara is the president of the Tallahassee Young Republicans. He says the debt-issues are real and even though the economy is still slumping, the debt needs to be addressed now, not later.
"If you go back to the S&P's statement on the downgrade and what they claim is the solution to avoid future downgrade, its closest to what the Tea Party suggested- looking seriously at spending and our entitlement programs.
Standard and Poor's also called for revenue increases, which Camara says equals tax increases.
Now, a bi-partisan Congressional committee has until November to cut even more money from the federal budget. That budget will go before the full congress for an up-or-down vote, with no changes being allowed. That means the two sides will have to compromise, something Camara says is not a dirty word depending on who is using it.
"It's interesting that whenever the Republicans have had a seat at the table recently, everyone is screaming for compromise. When the Democrats had full control where was the compromise when they rammed the stimulus, when they rammed ObamaCare and both of these are extremely costly. There are a lot of sour grapes and unfortunately people are going to have to get over that to move the ball forward, but it will be difficult."
Republicans say the cuts should come from domestic spending and entitlements, while Democrats say revenue increases have to be part of the financial plan. Another result of the S&P's downgrade is that the firm has now started taking a closer look at municipal bonds that's debt held by states, counties and cities. Recently the ratings agencies reaffirmed Florida's top credit rating making it a Triple-A state in a double-A-plus nation.