McCain: Don’t shoot the messenger

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday told White House officials and Democrats to stop attacking Standard & Poor’s for downgrading the nation’s credit rating.

“On the S&P thing, don’t shoot the messenger,” McCain said on NBC’s “Meet the Press”.

McCain said most policymakers agree the nation is on an unsustainable fiscal path.

“Is there anybody that believes that S&P is wrong in their assessment of the situation — of the fiscal situation of this country?” he said.

McCain said the real problem is the unsustainable growth of popular entitlement programs, which Congress is reluctant to cut.

“The elephant in the room as we all know is Medicare and Social Security,” he said. “And unless we are ready to reform those entitlements, we are not going to have a long-term fix for our fiscal problems.”

McCain said President Obama and congressional leaders should announce plans to reform those programs. Otherwise, he said, “We end up like Greece and then we’ll be unable to provide those benefits.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said Congress needs to act immediately to curb its rate of spending.

“We're borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we spend. This year, the interest on our debt is $240 billion. It's projected in 10 years to go to $940 billion in interest in one year. This is unsustainable,” he said on ABC’s “This Week”.

Greece’s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stands at 140 percent, the highest in Europe.

U.S. debt is 100 percent of GDP.

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