- Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell last week: “[The U.S. economy is] a hostage that’s worth ransoming.”
- Greg Sargent at Washington Post: “Even if you agree with McConnell’s assessment — as I’m sure many conservatives do — it’s still a matter of fact that the embrace of the debt ceiling as a weapon for policy ends is a primary reason S & P downgraded the U.S. credit rating.”
- Dave Weigel at Slate: S&P “opens fire on Republicans”
- Megan McArdle at the Atlantic: “I will take a lot of hell for saying this, [but] I’m afraid I think that the lion’s share of the blame goes to the GOP, which escalated to this completely unnecessary showdown…”
- Jonathan Chait at TNR: “[When] you have a political party that does not agree that revenue levels must bear a relationship to outlays, and is willing to foment a systemic crisis in order to maximize its leverage, you’re in trouble.”
- Steve Benen at Washington Monthly: “When U.S. policymakers are using the possibility of voluntary default as a political weapon, those policymakers make the nation fundamentally less stable and less trustworthy.”
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