Get fact straight in tea party attacks

In a recent letter, the Kendall County Democratic Women joined the attacks on the tea party, blaming them for the U.S. debt downgrade. That’s clearly a false accusation — the tea party is a force for spending reductions, which is required if we’re to avoid future downgrades.

But my objection to the KCDW’s letter isn’t with their accusation — it’s with their dishonest tactics. They claim that the S & P downgrade report mentioned three times that our “unwillingness to raise revenues was going to make it impossible for us to regain our credit rating.” If true, that’s a very convincing indictment since the tea party vehemently opposes tax increases.

The problem is, it’s baloney. Now sometimes people take quotes out of context in order to make their argument. But the KCDW have gone beyond context and taken their quote right out of thin air. The supposed quote doesn’t appear in the S&P report at all, much less three times. Not only that, S&P specifically states that they take no position regarding the best solution to the debt crisis.

Here is a quote that IS in the report: “Standard & Poor’s takes no position on the mix of spending and revenue measures that Congress and the Administration might conclude is appropriate for putting the U.S.’s finances on a sustainable footing.” It’s on page 4 of S&P’s report — check it out yourself.

Liberals are in a panic to discredit the tea party because tea party success means the end of their tax and spend, spend, spend ways — and this is a typical example of the way they try to do it.

John Craychee

St. Charles