U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts
What credit rating agency Standard & Poor's describes as dysfunction and incompetence in Washington's handling of the debt ceiling, U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts views as American-style democracy working mostly as it should.
"Standard & Poor's seems to take the position that we shouldn't have a debt limit in this country," Pitts said Monday. "The fact is that the debt limit has enabled us to have a serious debate about our debt long before we would run into the type of problems seen in Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
"People see the robust debate in Washington and assume it is dysfunction," said Pitts, a Republican who represents Lancaster County in the House. "They don't have debates in China. In Greece they riot in the streets. Here we have elections. I think we're doing just fine."
Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating on Friday, citing the "prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate."
"Despite this year's wide-ranging debate, in our view, the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge," the agency wrote, "and, as we see it, the resulting agreement fell well short of the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program that some proponents had envisaged until quite recently."
Pitts, responding to questions from a reporter, declined to say whether he believed the downgrade is justified but said it serves as a "potent reminder that our debt problem is serious, and that we cannot put off solving it for another day."
The congressman said that getting a polarized Congress to agree on raising the debt ceiling and making spending cuts was a feat that many other nations cannot accomplish.
"I've said before that I wish we could tone down some of the harsher rhetoric," Pitts said. "However, it is not easy for two sides that are so far apart to come together. This was especially hard because the president himself was not directly involved until a matter of only a few weeks before the deadline.
"Let's remember, though, at the end of the day, the most divided government we have seen in decades ended up coming to agreement. Our democracy works."
In its statement, Standard & Poor's took issue with both political parties — Democrats for opposing substantive cuts to entitlement programs and Republicans for failing to embrace new revenues or allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire.
"Compared with previous projections, our revised base-case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act," the agency wrote.
Pitts said tax reform could "bring new revenue to the treasury, produce certainty and stimulate job growth" but maintains the so-called Bush tax cuts for top earners should not be allowed to expire in 2013.
"We should not raise taxes on job creators," Pitts said. "Especially when we are already struggling with high unemployment.
"The main drivers of our debt are government entitlement programs, some of which are supposed to be funded with their own streams of revenue. Raising general revenue is not the solution to the problem, it only helps to shove the problems under the rug for a little while longer."
