Rosapepe: Don't Downgrade Maryland

Maryland Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-District 21) has urged Standard & Poor's to keep intact the state's AAA bond rating after the agency downgraded its rating of U.S. credit last week. 

Rosapepe, a Democrat from College Park who represents portions of Odenton, said S&P was wrong to lower the U.S. credit rating to AA+, blaming the recent Congressional showdown over the nation's debt on "Tea Party extremists" who are not in charge.

He said the downgrade of U.S. credit should have no impact on Maryland, which has a history of balanced budgets and large fiscal reserves. 

Rosapepe is a former vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate chairman of the Joint Audit Committee. 

Here's the full text of Rosapepe's statement regarding S&P and Maryland. 

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"S&P's downgrade of US debt reflects their concern, shared by millions of Americans, that Tea Party extremists in the US Congress tried to create unprecedented risks for our country. Their openness to default and pledge to use future debt ceiling votes to hold our country hostage would be dangerous -- if they were in charge. But, as responsible Democrats and Republicans in Congress showed last week, the Tea Party does not control US economic policy and America does pay its bills. Nonetheless, S&P and the other rating agencies have been wrong before, on everything from WorldCom and Enron to subprime mortgages and, now, US government debt. The question is now: will they make a similar mistake on Maryland's credit rating? Our state has had a AAA bond rating for 50 years in large part because, as S&P said on July 13, we have a 'long history of prudent fiscal management, including making difficult decisions to restore structural budget balance.' We also have fiscal reserves of more than 1.2 billion dollars, almost 10 percent of our budget, which S&P ' considers to be strong.' Nothing in S&P's downgrade of US debt changes those hard facts. That's why S&P should not change Maryland's AAA bond rating."