The U.S. economy received some more bad news on Friday, May 16 when Moody’s Analytics downgraded the United States’ credit rating, noting the country’s growing national debt — which is up to $36 trillion.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was dismissive of the downgrade’s importance, describing it as a “lagging indicator” and commenting, “Who cares?”
But MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough vehemently disagreed with Bessent’s reaction on the Monday, May 19, broadcast of “Morning Joe,” laying out some reasons why the Moody’s downgrade is a big deal for the U.S. economy.
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Scarborough told fellow “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski and their colleague Jonathan Lemire, “Who cares? Every American should care, actually.… Moody’s is not a lagging indicator. If Moody’s is focused on the deficits, the growing debt, in a way that people in Washington just are not…. The fact is we’re (at) $37 trillion debt.”
The Never Trump conservative and former GOP congressman continued, “I know I’ve been talking about this my whole adult life, but for good reason, because nobody’s focused on it. And when we go off a cliff because of the debt bomb going off — I mean, it’s not going to be something that we’re going to recover from in six months or a year.
Scarborough was highly critical of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” complaining that there “can’t be a fiscal conservative left in the House of Representatives.”
Scarborough told Brzezinski and Lemire, “We’re talking about adding about $10 trillion to the national debt, a $37 trillion debt. They’re passing tax cuts for… billionaires and millionaires. They’re not seriously looking at where the biggest costs are, which would be an entitlement program reform — not from the poorest Americans, but from the wealthiest Americans. And they’re not looking at significant reform at the Pentagon to try to figure out, again, how to streamline the Pentagon.”
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The Never Trumper continued, “We can’t afford this budget. Moody’s is not a lagging indicator. Moody’s is a siren going off. Our deficits are too high. The national debt is too high. And this this one big, beautiful bill sends that national debt skyrocketing and makes Republicans in the House who claim to be conservative makes them look like they just don’t give a damn about our children and grandchildren’s future.”
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Watch the full video below or at this link.
