In the wake of S&P's reduction of the U.S. credit rating, Republican leaders and amen corner are apoplectic about what Democrats John Kerry and David Axelrod deemed the "Tea Party Downgrade." Sadly, there's one small problem for the right-wing bloggers insisting "they can't possibly sell that" and for the GOP presidential candidates attacking President Obama instead. As the polls and the words of Republican politicians each show, Tea Partiers long have made clear that for the United States no AAA rating is no problem.
For instant confirmation, Americans can just watch the videotape of Tea Partiers cheering the Standard & Poor's downgrade or even Fox Business host Neil Cavuto's proclamation last week that "I would welcome a downgrade." But for months, polls have shown that the Republican rank and file was convinced that failure to raise the nation's debt ceiling posed no threat at all.
In May, polls by CBS and Gallup showed that Americans by a 2-to-1 margin opposed raising the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. (Among Republicans, the gap was a staggering 70% to 8%.) Only as the August 2nd deadline approached (and thanks to the increasingly dire warnings of economists, think tanks, international financial bodies and even GOP-friendly business groups), the tide began to turn. A July Pew Research survey showed Americans split as to whether raising the debt or defaulting on U.S. debt obligations was the greater concern.
But among Republicans, there was no such schism.

As another Pew Research poll revealed, Republicans in general and Tea Party supporters in particular saw no crisis if the U.S. debt limit was reached on August. Looking at "the scariest debt-ceiling poll I've seen," Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, already worried about a default that would produce a "global financial panic that makes 2008 look like a warm-up," lamented "a plurality of independents and a majority of Republicans think everything will be just dandy if we blow through Aug. 2 without raising the debt ceiling. Terrific."

Which is why surveys taken in the wake of last week's debt ceiling compromise show that Democrats are the only group that appears to support it. Not because they liked the $2.4 trillion in spending cuts, but simply because they knew the debt ceiling had to be raised. But as polls from CNN, CBS/New York Times, and Gallup showed, Republicans were not only content to think the unthinkable, but to make it happen. As USA Today summed it up:

Though Tea Party conservatives succeeded in setting the parameters of the deal, supporters of the Tea Party are among those most unhappy with the outcome: 22% of Tea Party supporters approve of the agreement, compared with 26% of Republicans and 58% of Democrats.

That so many Republicans in general and Tea Partiers in particular were so willing to undermine the full faith and credit of the United States should come as no surprise. After all, their leaders were telling them that was the strategy from the moment the GOP seized the House majority in November.
That was the word from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Within hours of Tuesday's midterm voting, McConnell signaled the GOP would oppose boosting the debt ceiling needed to avoid a global economic panic unless there were "strings attached." Appearing on Meet the Press Sunday, South Carolina Senator Jim Demint made clear what strings he had in mind. Asked if he'll support raising the debt ceiling, Demint responded:

"No, I won't. Not unless this debt ceiling is combined with some path to balancing our budget, returning to 2008 spending levels, repealing Obamacare. We have got to demonstrate that we have the resolve to cut spending ... we cannot allow that to go through the Congress without showing the American people that we are going to balance the budget, and we're not going to continue to raise the debt in America."

And despite warnings in January from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner ("Failure to increase the limit would be deeply irresponsible"), Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee ("If we get to the point where you've damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity") and even Speaker John Boehner ("That would be a financial disaster"), the GOP's Tea Party caucus made clear the debt ceiling would be raised only if their demands were met or not at all.
In April, Sarah Palin declared, "Hells no. I would not vote to increase that debt ceiling." She joined her Minnesota twin Michele Bachmann in decrying Geithner's warnings at "outright blatant lies" and "falsehoods." For her part Bachmann joined Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) and fellow GOP White House hopeful Tim Pawlenty in opposing a debt ceiling increase despite the warnings of the virtually the entire economic and business establishment.
By this summer, the ranks of the "default deniers" and "debt kamikazes" had swollen further. Congressmen Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Steve King (R-IA) joined Bachmann in calling the Obama administration's warnings about the August 2 deadline lies. (Not to be outdone, Sarah Palin tweeted "Obama lies, economy dies.") Georgia Rep. Paul Broun called for the debt ceiling to be lowered to $13 trillion, would necessitate immediately cutting roughly three-fourths of all federal spending. And while Arkansas Rep. Eric "Rick" Crawford announced that a default "wouldn't work for just a few days, that would work for a few years," his freshman colleague Mo Brooks (R-AL) insisted no debt ceiling increase, no problem. As the Washington Post reported:

"There should be no default on August 2," Brooks said. "In fact, our credit rating should be improved by not raising the debt ceiling."
That stands in contrast to a warning from Moody's. The rating agency said Wednesday that it might downgrade the U.S. government's top-notch credit rating, "given the rising possibility that the statutory debt limit will not be raised on a timely basis, leading to a default."

Eight months after he warned his new GOP House majority that "we're going to have to deal with it as adults" and three months after he told a Tea Party gathering that "we're going to have to raise it again in the future," Speaker Boehner by early July acknowledged that at least 60 GOP Congressmen "won't vote to raise the debt ceiling under any circumstances." That's why he walked away from a $ 4 trillion debt reduction deal with President Obama that included less than 20% from new tax revenue. That's also why, facing defeat for his own bill from his own party, Speaker Boehner added a balanced budget amendment certain to be rejected in the Senate. And that's certainly why Boehner played dumb when he claimed, "This debt limit increase is [Obama's] problem."
As the debt ceiling crisis his party manufactured came to a head, John Boehner responded to warnings that his own debt reduction plan would not satisfy rating agencies by proclaiming, "That is beyond my control." Afterwards, he crowed:

"I got 98 percent of what I wanted. I'm pretty happy."

And to be sure, Republican hardliners have now gotten what they in essence said they wanted all along.
The Tea Party Downgrade.
(For more background, see "The Republican Debt Orgy in Pictures", "The Economy's Willing Executioners" and "Republican Secrets of the Debt.")