Moody’s Reality Check

By Peter Galuszka

Moody’s Rating Service is about to pull the rug from under U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor and Gov. Bob McDonnell. It’s about time they had a reality check but too bad it will be so expensive.

Moody’s says that Virginia is one of five states whose credit it might downgrade if the federal government misses its deadline to raise the debt ceiling and go into default. A primary reason is that Virginia depends very much on federal jobs given its proximity to Washington and its many military bases.

This may be news to Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, who is pushing a childish campaign to demolish any negotiated deal for raising the debt ceiling while addressing federal spending.

After voting for just about every budget hike George W. Bush presented, Eric the Boor, is now playing Tea Party by insisting on huge federal cuts while playing chicken with our future.

He seems to think that it is good politics to run head of the Tea Party parade while also servicing his biggest campaign donors, namely Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Capital One Financial, and others. They all stand to pay more if some of Grand Bargains go through. Managers of billion dollar and largely unregulated hedge funds might have to (sniff, sniff) pay 15 percent extra in fees. The ultra-rich might have to pay more taxes. Imagine!

Bob McDonnell is trying hard to be our Jobs Governor. He says he’s created thousands of private sector jobs while balancing the budget.

He seems to forget just how dependent Virginia is on the evil federal government which might not be able to write checks after Aug. 3.

Both Cantor and McDonnell have made careers playing the anti-tax, anti-spending, anti-Washington game. It is make believe given the reality of the state’s true employment picture and who pays the bills.

Want to see how it affects you and me? If Moody’s takes us down a peg, then we’ll all be paying more for Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton’s billions in bonds for questionable roads. Virginia’s years-old reputation will be squandered.

And who will have done it? The very people who claim to be the most fiscally responsible.