All of the usual suspects have decided to blame the Tea Party for the recent S&P downgrade of U.S. government debt to AA+. This should be in the category of dog bites man news, of course, but it somehow makes the papers. First of all, the downgrade is long overdue. Second, unless spending is curbed, the debt will grow; tax revenues will not increase until the economy is growing, and there are upper limits on how much tax revenue the federal government can squeeze out of the economy. Hint, it’s less than the current rate of spending. Even though I supported Boehner on this deal, as the best we could get under the circumstances, the deal itself stinks because Democrats blocked any serious spending cuts.