Pelosi warns GOP on repeat of downgrade and debt-limit drama

{mosads}Two years ago Monday, the credit rater knocked the United States’s once sterling credit reputation down a peg, lowering its rating from “AAA” to “AA-plus.” The downgrade came shortly after Washington narrowly averted a debt-ceiling crisis, and the rater cited the intense political brinksmanship surrounding that debate as a key motivator for lowering the rating.

However, the doom and gloom that surrounded the unprecedented action has largely failed to develop; borrowing rates for U.S. government debt fell to the lowest levels in history after the credit rater deemed the nation’s bonds were less reliable than before.

Nonetheless, Pelosi squarely blamed Republicans for the outcome Monday, saying the GOP “held hostage” the economy during that summer’s debt-limit fight.

“Unnecessary Republican brinksmanship led to the first credit downgrade in our nation’s history — and the American people and economy paid the price,” she said.

Lawmakers are gone for thie August recess, but both parties are already gearing up for a pair of fierce fiscal fights: one over legislation to fund the government and avoid a shutdown, and the other about hiking the nation’s borrowing limit, which the Treasury Department anticipates will be required in September or October.

Ahead of the debt-limit fight, both sides are staking out well-entrenched positions. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said he will not accept an increase to the debt limit that does not include at least an equal amount of spending cuts, while President Obama is maintaining he will not negotiate over paying the nation’s bills.

Pelosi said Democrats are willing to discuss a compromise, but laid out several items that are not up for discussion from her perspective.

“We will not support any resolution that destroys jobs, ends the Medicare guarantee, or puts insurance companies back in charge of Americans’ health care,” she said.