U.S. is losing credibility in the world

Frank Beaty, Las Vegas

Thursday, April 21, 2011 | 2:04 a.m.

I read with great interest the news items printed each day regarding the state of the economy, including most recently the warning issued by Standard & Poor’s a few days ago about the threat faced by the United States regarding its credit rating.

The world is growing tired of what it sees as a lack of leadership in the one nation that has financial fingers in all their pies. The world’s economists know that only a plan like President Barack Obama’s, which includes spending cuts and increases in revenue, will work to reduce our deficit. Republican plans continue to ignore the deficit in favor of cutting spending to benefit the rich. We cannot continue down this path.

My concern is about the looming possibility of the dollar being removed as the world standard for financial transactions if we cannot find a way to bridge the gap. It should be clear by now that the principles espoused by people such as Ayn Rand, whom Republicans so openly promote, are not just mean and devoid of integrity, but they will also spell disaster in a nation where we are so dependent on each other.

Let’s face facts: We either solve our problems together as a nation or perish in our fruitless efforts to gain the higher ground on those we disagree with as the nation ceases to be taken seriously by the rest of the world.