Maddow Flat Out Lies About S&P’s Downgrade Explanation: ‘Not Because There’s Too Much Debt’
As NewsBusters previously reported , MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was rewarded for lying about Rush Limbaugh on her program Thursday by getting a guest appearance on Sunday's “Meet the Press.” The top brass at NBC should be pleased with their decision for Maddow proceeded to thoroughly misrepresent the reasons Standard and Poor's gave for downgrading America's debt Friday (video follows with transcript and commentary): RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC: I mean, the, the downgrade message whatever you think of S&P, they mentioned the need for increased revenues and for revenues being on the table three separate times. They absolutely indicted the fashionable intransigence of the Republican Party right now in Washington. And there's a question about whether or not there will be a change in fashion, whether or not that will be a sort of wakeup call that the parties need to work together rather than the Republicans' fashion right now, which is that any deal is a bad deal. DAVID GREGORY, HOST: Alex. ALEX CASTELLANOS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Oh, where to begin? I don't think Republicans are saying any deal is a bad deal. But when you look at what these rating agencies are all saying, Standard & Poor's or not, is that we can't continue to maintain an unsustainable level of debt. And these Republicans in the Congress are saying how can you grow an economy when you have to service an unfathomably growing amount of debt? And so they put their foot down on that. And the problem is not Republican intransigents, I think the problem is balance, as the president likes to call for. We have balance. We have Republican intransigence and “We have to stop spending,” and Democrat intransigents that “We must continue to keep spending.” That's why we got nothing done. GREGORY: But we… MADDOW: That's not why S&P says they downgraded us, though. S&P says, “The downgrade was motivated by all the debate about raising of the debt ceiling. It involved a level of brinksmanship greater than what we had expected.” That's why they say they downgraded us. Not because there's too much debt, but rather that Washington is not working. Toward the end of the segment, Maddow reiterated this stupidity: MADDOW: Let's take them on their word about why they did this. They said they did this because of brinksmanship over the debt ceiling. They did not say they did this because there's too much government spending. GREGORY: All right. Let's, let… MADDOW: They said they did this because of Republicans holding the debt… CASTELLANOS: Because of the debt. MADDOW: No. The debt ceiling. Brinksmanship… CASTELLANOS: Yeah, but the debt ceiling is the ceiling… MADDOW: …is their word. Really? Well, why don't we look at the official statement S&P released Friday to discern the truth? Here is the complete overview (emphasis added throughout to demonstrate just how wrong Maddow was): Overview
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on August 7, 2011. Filed under