Letter to the Editor: Tea Party Not to Blame

Chrisi Vineyard’s letter “Tea Party has Stranglehold on GOP” is inaccurate.  She immediately parrots a quote, verbatim, from Media Matters, (July 12, 2011). Media Matters is an extreme liberal group “dedicated” to “go after” conservatives using quotes out of context and hate speech to demonize and vilify the enemy. To see the Kendall County Democratic Women’s President associated with Media Matters is a discredit to that organization and she should be ashamed. The real facts regarding the S&P downgrade of the USA credit rating is below.

CLAIM:  Ms. Vineyard says the S&P report mentions three times, our “unwillingness to raise revenues was going to make it impossible for us to regain our credit rating”, and says the Tea Party’s “complete unwillingness to compromise and their divisive, obstructionist, and toxic attitude in Washington caused the S&P down grade”.

FACT: The S&P, on record states, “the credit downgrade was inevitable unless there was at least $4 Trillion in cuts in the debt ceiling agreement”. The Democrats had no plan and our President has no plan. The S&P says, “We take no position on the mix of spending and revenue measures that Congress and Administration might conclude is appropriate for putting the U.S.'s finances on a sustainable footing”. The S&P assigns no blame.

FACT:  The House vote was 269-161. 174 Republicans & 95 Democrats “FOR”, 66 Republicans & 95 Democrats “OPPOSED”. In the Senate the vote was 74-26. 45 Democrats & 28 Republicans “FOR”, 6 Democrats & 19 Republicans “OPPOSED”. 

This was the most bi-partisan vote to increase the debt ceiling seen. It is considered as one of the most bipartisan votes on an issue of consequence in years. However, the White House, leading Democrats and liberal media blames the Tea Party for the downgrade.  Liberals and leftists only like compromise and bipartisanship when they exclusively get their way. Evenly spread vote, blame the Tea Party.

CLAIM: The Republicans (Tea Party) are unwilling to compromise. 

FACT: “Cut, Cap, and Balance” was sufficient and would have prevented the downgrade, but Republicans submitted many plans. What was the Harry Reid and liberal mantra?  It was “Dead on arrival”, no discussion, no debate, and no compromise. That is a fact. Now liberals must assign blame. No debate and no compromise was how HealthCare negotiations were conducted.  It is ironic the HealthCare fiasco is one of many “issues” that sparked formation of the TEA Party.

FACT: Republicans were four Senate Democrats short of passing the Cut, Cap and Balance Act.  Every single Democrat voted against Cut, Cap and Balance.  22 Democrats and 1 Independent had promised to support a balanced budget. Is this compromise?

FACT: Endless compromise, (mindless) got us into this mess. I thank Mr. Hultgren for standing on OUR fiscal principles.  Chrisi Vineyard holds him responsible for the downgrade. How ridiculous. Chrisi, do not forget to blame the Democrats who voted beside him. If we all stand behind Tea Party principles the US economy will come back stronger than ever.

Larry Stanford
Newark, Illinois

Letters to the Editor should be e-mailed to Yorkville Patch Editor Jillian Duchnowski at jillian.duchnowski@patch.com. They should be no more than 500 words, and please include your full name and a telephone number so Duchnowski can confirm the sender's identity.