[Lemon:] Welcome back, everyone. What does the U.S credit downgrade mean for you and your money? We are talking about that with our very own Christine Romans and Richard Quest. Both are in New York tonight. So when people wake up tomorrow, what are they going to discover when the stock markets open in the U.S. for the first time after this downgrade? I mean, Richard, is this the end of the world as we know it? Is the sky falling? RICHARD QUEST, HOST, CNN's "
[Quest Means Business":] Don't be ridiculous. Of course not. You may have a you may have a Dow futures that are down slightly. You may even have a market that's off 100, 200 points. But how we start is never how we finish. We've had this whole real bromide about the G7 statement. They are all coming out tonight, just as you'd expect them to. The IMF has come out with a statement that seems pretty meaningless. Putting it all together, this is a slow burning, deeply-seated crisis that is affecting the global financial markets. And the real issue and Christine agrees with me so I'm on safe I'm on safe grounds is what it means for jobs, because if you've got a slowdown in Europe and you've got a slowdown in the United States, and you've got China starting to come off the boil somewhat, you've got to ask yourself, although it may not be a global double dip, but where is the growth going to come from to create the jobs?
[Lemon:] And Christine, when you're out in a pub and you're in a pub or a bar or a restaurant, you're talking to people, no one's really going, oh, I'm concerned about the downgrade. People are going, "Hey, I think I'm going to get laid off" or, "Where's the job? I've been out of a job for a year." That's what people really want to know about this.
[Romans:] Look, the downgrade was humiliating and avoidable. And people are talking about it on the street because they think that it shows their political process is all crazy and they're worries about what's that going to mean for the rest of the year when they have to do more cost-cutting. But you're right. It is about or spending cuts. It is about jobs. What I don't hear is a credible plan, any kind of work any kind of consensus for a plan to get jobs growing. But as Richard will point out, growing jobs takes money and it may take government intervention. And you've got a whole part of Congress now that doesn't want the government involved in your life. And so that means and spending cuts means fewer jobs.
[Lemon:] Hey, Richard, I've got 10 seconds left. I want to ask you this. This is the people think, oh, this is all part of what happened with the downgrade and then the fight over the debt ceiling. This started long before that.
[Quest:] It's been going for decades. This is not we didn't just wake up either in the United States or in Europe and suddenly, oops, my word, there is a global financial crisis, what have we done wrong. This is going back years. I mean, robbing Peter to pay Paul, deficit financing, living beyond our means on both sides of the Atlantic. This is what the problem has been. And now, finally, look, there is a massive shift of economic power from Europe and the United States to Asia, and anybody that doesn't realize that and deal with it is deluding themselves.
[Lemon:] Richard Quest, Christine Romans, thank you.
[Romans:] See you in the morning.
[Lemon:] You know, the Democrats definitely know who they'd like to blame for the credit downgrade. They came out swinging during the Sunday talkers. Take a listen.
[David Axelrod, Obama Campaign Strategist:] This is essentially a Tea Party downgrade. The Tea Party brought us to the brink of a default.
[Sen. John Kerry , Massachusetts:] I believe this is, without question, the Tea Party downgrade.
[Gov. Martin O'malley , Maryland:] The Tea Party obstructionism here in Washington is keeping us from restoring that balanced approach that America has always used.
[Lemon:] Well, Democrats are clearly trying to label this the Tea Party downgrade. Earlier, though, I spoke with Amy Kremer, chairwoman of the Tea Party Express and she fired back.
[Amy Kremer, Chairwoman, Tea Party Express:] Don, we're not backing away from the fact that we stopped the administration and Harry Reid from, you know, pushing through any tax increases.
[Lemon:] I want to move on now and read part of the report from the S&P.; It points fingers at both sides. So, here's a quote. It says, "The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics." But there is a section where S&P; calls out one of the parties directly, Amy. Here it is. It says, "Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts" meaning the Bush tax cuts "due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act," meaning the debt ceiling deal. So, Amy, the Tea Party will not budge on tax cuts. And right here, S&P; is saying that kind of rigid position was a major reason for the downgrade. How do you respond to that?
[Kremer:] Look, the size of our debt is because we're spending too much, not because we don't have enough revenue. We cannot increase taxes enough to spend the way that we do and cover it. That's the bottom line. I've said it over and over again. We have a spending problem. That is what got us into this situation. They did not downgrade our debt because we don't have enough revenue.
[Lemon:] The Tea Party, very proud of it role in the debt ceiling negotiations, but, clearly, nobody wants to be left holding the bag on this historic downgrade. So I want to bring in CNN contributor and political anchor for New York 1, Errol Louis. So, Errol, you heard the Democrats blaming the Tea Party and the Republicans. You heard the Tea Party Express chairwoman throwing it right back at them. I don't know. No one's ever going to take the blame for this, are they?
[Errol Louis, Cnn Contributor:] Well, not willingly. And it's very interesting how the bickering that went on today and it started Friday night, frankly, really perfectly reproduces the very deadlock that led to the downgrade in first place. I mean, you know, it's a serious problem. It has been going on for decades. There are people who feel like you should never raise revenues. There are people who felt genuinely, I think, that when we did have a budget surplus at the end of the Clinton presidency, that it was time to give that money back. That it would be immoral for the government to hold on to it. That it belongs back in the hands of the taxpayers. That's not a radical position. But it is at odds with this notion that we have to get rid of our deficit right now at all costs. And, you know, the bickering really just makes it a difficult argument, a longstanding argument, impossible to resolve.
[Lemon:] It just kind of confirms what S&P; said in their downgrade report. I want to talk now about the treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner. Republicans want him gone after this, but today, the treasury released a statement saying that he is staying in his post. But do you think his days are numbered now? We have heard that before, where they say, I'm standing by this guy, I'm not going anywhere, and then a week or two goes by and all of a sudden they're gone.
[Louis:] Sure. I keep an eye on the presidential approval polls. You know, that's probably your best clue as to whether or not some kind of a shake about the economic team. And it won't necessarily just be limited to Timothy Geithner. There are a number of people, council of economic advisers, there are all kinds of people who are part of the economic strategy team. It looks like they need to be shuffled or reworked in order to make the administration viable. Then that's what will very likely happen.
[Lemon:] Geithner was on the phone with G7 ministers tonight. Damage control? If so, did it help anything at all?
[Louis:] Well, there are a couple of things going on there, Don. I mean, first of all, he had to do that. You have to do that in advance of the market's opening. Even if it's just sort of pro forma, if he hadn't done it, it certainly would have been a negative mark on the administration. And then secondly, just as Christine was saying, this is really right now, today, about Europe in large part, and the G7 is far more concerned about what's happening with, you know, the 6 percent yields on bonds, 10-year bonds. I mean, investors are demanding so much in order to support the economy and the governments of Italy and of Spain that there is a real crisis brewing over there. So the G7 needed to talk about that as well. I think what Geithner did was the only responsible thing he could have done. And we'll look for him to hear more from the administration after markets open, I think. They've got to try and keep this all under control about what's happening here and what's happening in Europe.
[Lemon:] Before we go, I have to ask you a question. If you have a so if you have a few dollars to invest, I'm talking about you, let's say you have $1,000. What are you going to invest it tomorrow stock market, gold, a box in the backyard, a mattress? What would you do with it?
[Louis:] I believe and what I keep hearing over and over again, what many people tell me about my 401 [K], poor, battered 401 [K] which is to sit tight and wait. If you've got more than five or ten years and you don't think the country is going to go under there is no particular reason to start moving stuff around.
[Lemon:] Yes. A lot of people can't wait though. They are nearing the finish line. And they got to use that to live for the rest of their lives. So thank you, Errol. I appreciate it.
[Louis:] That's true. Those are the people who get hurt the worst, actually. Unfortunately, those are the people who get hurt the worst. Thanks, Don.
[Lemon:] Scenes of desperation and tragedy in Somalia to report to you. Famine has left thousands dead. And the survivors doing anything they can just to live another day. But it's not just hunger killing the smallest victims. Our report from the Horn of Africa is next. And she's risking her life and limb to do something no one has ever done before swim all the way from Cuba to Florida. Why? And many of you have been asking about information through social media. We're on Twitter. We're on Facebook. CNN.comDon and FourSquare as well.