Debt Ceiling Uncertainty Puts States Like Virginia at Risk

There is certainly some irony in the fact that Virginia Governor Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell is finding himself faced with a possible downgrading of Virginia's debt rating because of the intransigence and lunacy of his GOP cohorts in Congress. While McDonnell has tried to skew the blame to Barack Obama, the truth is that the fault lies with the Kool-Aid drinkers in the GOP who have become the total political prostitutes of of the Tea Party and Christofascists - just as McDonnell has done himself. Karma can be a real bitch. The New York Times looks at how McDonnell may find himself bit in the ass by his fellow GOP extremists. Here are some highlights:
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States whose economies rely on the federal government — including Maryland and Virginia, home to many federal employees and contractors — are at the greatest risk if there is no agreement and Washington has to decide which payments to make and which to skip. They were among the states warned by Moody’s Investors Service this week that their credit ratings were being jeopardized by Washington — which would make it more expensive for them to borrow for costs like construction, through no fault of their own.
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“For nearly 75 years we have worked hard to earn the highest credit ratings from all three rating agencies,” Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia, a Republican, wrote this week to President Obama and members of Congress, urging them to raise the debt limit. “Now your failure to get the job done is hurting the businesses and citizens of our commonwealth.”
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[A] number of states have begun preparing for the worst. Ric Brown, Virginia’s secretary of finance, said that it was a difficult task, made much more difficult by the lack of concrete information coming from Washington. “What you’ve got at the federal level, let’s face it, is outright chaos,” he said in an interview. “It’s hard to make sense out of that.”
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[I]f the debt limit is not raised and the federal government cannot meet all its costs, states and localities will face a new set of more serious problems. The National Conference of State Legislatures told members this week that there was little experience to guide their many “what if” questions, citing instead “a potpourri of ‘coulds,’ ” including the possibility that the federal government could pay its debts in the order in which they were received, or could prioritize which payments to make.
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If the Democrats have any sense they will begin the drum beat now that the blame for the potential debacle lies with the GOP and that voters need to begin punishing ALL Republicans by voting them out of office starting now. Virginia's fall elections would be a perfect chance to begin the onslaught against Republicans because many Republicans in the General Assembly are just as extreme as their counterparts in Congress..