S&P Downgrades USA's Credit Rating from AAA to AA+.


Friday night Standard & Poor’s took the unprecedented step and downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time ever. The rating dropped from AAA to AA+ after the debt ceiling deal failed to satisfy worries about the state of the economy and the ability of the US to raise enough revenue to match spending obligations.

Treasury officials looked at the numbers and found that S&P had miscalculated future deficit projections by nearly $2 trillion, does, will, this make a difference? Will we see the S&P return America's AAA rating? Somehow I think not. The news, which seemed inevitable should surprise no one, including me, after the insanity we all watched play out in Congress over raising the national debt ceiling. It seems most all our members of Congress have been drinking the coolaid! Even Obama, to have caved and not fought till the bitter end, had to have snuck a sip or two.

I have found it hard to post blogs for some time now in these past months, the mess the country is in frightens and depresses me. Often I find it hard to enjoy the frivolous side of every day life, when so much drama is constantly unfolding. There were days I wanted to turn to my blog and just rant on and on about the ongoing political theatre, but to what end? Too many it seems really dont want to hear it, discuss it...even acknowledge it. Many have chosen to ignore it, I suppose indulging themselves in the fantasy everything will work out just fine in the end, just like in the movies. And still, too many haven't a clue really, are totally and happily oblivious to the drama unfolding around them, and the impact it will have on their and their childrens lives. The impact all of it will have on our nation.

The impact of a credit downgrade could mean higher borrowing costs for consumers and businesses and it becomes more expensive for the U.S. to borrow money. State and local governments will feel an impact in funding, especially schools and parks. The first indication of a wider reach will happen Sunday night with the open of the Asian markets.

In the announcement S&P laid out blame squarely on the dysfunction in Washington, paying specific attention to the use of the debt ceiling as a partisan bargaining chip.

The U.S. long-term credit forecast was also negative, but with one bright spot. Let the Bush tax cuts lapse, the report said, and the debt dynamics should change enough to stabilize the long-term rate at AA+.

I read Michael Moores comments today, written after the news of the credit downgrading (in the aftermath of Congress passing what is being touted as The Worst Bill EVER, in order to raise the debt ceiling and address the nations debt, the heavy burden it will have on the middle class). He asks " Have we all just given up? What are we waiting for? Forget about the 20% who support the Tea Party -- we are the other 80%! This decline will only end when we demand it. And not through an online petition or a tweet. We are going to have to turn the TV and the computer and the video games off and get out in the streets (like they've done in Wisconsin). Some of you need to run for local office next year. We need to demand that the Democrats either get a spine and stop taking corporate money -- or step aside."

Well show me the way to the rally and I'll be there! Citizens in every city and every town in America should be taking to the streets. We've watched from afar, the brave make their voices heard in Greece, in Egypt, in Libya, in Tunisia, now the battle has come to our own back yards...yet why are we so quiet, so still?

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced". ~James Baldwin