Speaker Mike Johnson made an appearance on this weekend's Fox News Sunday, and was asked by host Shannon Bream about the credit downgrade from Moody's late last week.
"For the first time in a century they downgraded the US government's AAA rating. They say an increase in government debt and interest payment ratios that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns."
"Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says it should be a wake up call to your party," Bream continued. "He says you're hell bent on a multi-trillion dollar tax cut for the ultra wealthy. Your response?"
Johnson, of course, proceeded to lie and blame the downgrade on the Biden administration, ignoring the fact that they're about to explode the deficit with their "one big beautiful bill," which was part of the reason for the downgrade.
JOHNSON: It's just utter nonsense. It's just like Chuck Schumer to create a crisis and then point fingers of blame. This is the Biden spending spree that got us in this mess.
Moody's is not incorrect, but that's why that emphasizes the very need for the legislation we're talking about -- historic spending cuts.
I mean this will help to change the trajectory for the US economy and send that message of stability to our allies and even our enemies around the world.
America is back. President Trump's one big beautiful bill will be passed, and that will be the key to turning this thing around.
We have to get this done, and it just shows more of the urgency of why we're doing exactly what we're doing with the legislation.
They're not going to get anywhere near the cuts they originally promised, but they are going to manage to do enormous damage to the working class and those that rely on Medicaid for their insurance coverage regardless.
The Biden administration did what they had to in order to stabilize the economy as we were coming out of the pandemic, and as Politifact noted:
"President Biden has presided over declining deficits, but that’s because the deficit started staggeringly high because of the pandemic," said Steve Ellis, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a group that tracks federal spending. "If you compare the deficit to pre-pandemic levels, they are incredibly high. Some of that is still residual effects from the pandemic response and higher interest rates, but it is also from increased spending and decreased revenues."
Trump inherited an economy that was recovering better than any other industrialized nation following the pandemic, and Trump and the Republicans are about to squander that. We'll see how long they can continue to get away with blaming Biden for their destruction.
