August 8, 2011 4:45PM # Responding to the Downgrade By [Caleb O. Brown](https://www.cato.org/people/caleb-o-brown) --- SHARE Cato Senior Fellow [Jagadeesh Gokhale](https://www.cato.org/people/jagadeesh-gokhale) argues today that S&P has left little doubt that [credit rating agencies’ credibility has suffered because of the recent downgrade of U.S. Treasuries](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13526). He [argues](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/after-downgrade-white-house-pushes-tax-hike) that the response from the President leaves much to be desired. On the tax increases proposed by the President today to cover entitlement spending, he says > It’s basically impossible to tax our way out of this commitment. If we try to impose huge taxes on the backs of workers and younger generations, we will destroy the incentives to work and destroy the incentives to people who can provide capital to provide it in the U.S. They would take that capital and migrate to other shores. In other words, the taxes required to pay for past promises are uncollectible. Listen to the whole thing (and [subscribe](http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/cato-daily-podcast/id158961219)!): ##### Related Tags [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).