President Barack Obama should call his economic advisors and reconvene Congress to work out additional spending cuts to earn back the nation's just-reduced credit rating, Sen. Mark Kirk said Friday night.
"I think Congress should have gone further with the Gang of 6 plan that both Senator [Richard] Durbin and I were backing that would have cut $4.5 trillion from expected borrowing instead of $2.5 [billion], which is the final plan," said Kirk.
Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S.' top-notch credit rating from AAA to AA+ for the first time in history Friday night. The ratings agency blamed Washington dysfunction, saying the compromised debt plan "falls short" of what is necessary to lower the country's record $14.3 deficit.
Kirk said he wasn't surprised by the S&P's action, adding that the group was "fairly consistent" in its Congressional testimony that it wanted to see a big reduction in spending.
Still, Kirk said the nation can recover for its first-ever downgrade."
"Absolutely. We've seen other countries make the hard choices that cut spending and earn back a credit rating," he said. "This can be done. And it needs to be done."
