United States Credit Rating AA+

I feel like this will show us that the GOP is trying to take any steps to make sure that Obama fails. Its sad that it has come to this though. Its also sad to see that S&P has any credibility seeing their role in the financial crisis and such. Hopefully this won't effect the economy, but I'm sure it will.

Being a proud American, I obviously do not want to lose our immaculate credit rating. Anything that might be negative, I would love to avoid. But we deserve this. We really do. I admit, the details of all this are absolutely mind-numbing, but I did watch a little bit of the news on it and seen where the White House tried to pull one over on S&P, using their same we'll-game-America BS language to lie about a two-trillion-dollar-error. S&P didn't buy it, as well they shouldn't have, and whatever we did--didn't do, is more like it--was more than enough to cause them to lose faith. The most unfortunate part about a credit rating drop isn't actually the drop but rather the games politicians will play from here on out, attempting to blame the other side. The Republicans will put it all on the Democrats, citing that trillions in projected spending going forward is just too fiscally irresponsible. And the Democrats will put it all on the Republicans, claiming that a refusal to hike taxes to cover spending is why we lost the rating. Sadly, both sides probably feel as if they can benefit from this.

Has anyone noticed how Congress and Politians are eager to cut the spending for the most vunerable and poor but they sure do not cut their own spending and roll back their own checks or pay. They do not take a reduction in pay of any sort and they get to go on vacation. How many of you here on Mylot have had a nice cushy vacation year after year after year if ever. Not me. Would be nice. They never take a cut in pay but they sure know how to give themselves a pay raise every time while cutting Social Security which By the Way people have and and do PAY INTO so this should NOT ever be an entitlement but a right because if I pay money into the SS fund for my future retirement It is MY money they mandated I had to pay with the promise it would be there when I retire. That is the same as having a banker have me put money into the bank with the assurance it will gain interest and also will be there when I need it only to find he says Oops I had a crisis so I had to take your money to meet my debts. HELLO something is wrong with this. We need to get out of other nations wars and politics and mind business at home and bring jobs they sold over seas home again as well and stop outsourcing them to other nations who work for way too cheap and sell us junk back. We also need to start buying AMERICAN MADE not stuff from other nations. America has lots its pride. It has left its roots and foundation on which our nation was built. It has been sold out and with it "We the people"

So, time to legalize pot and tax the hell out of it. Then, can we have our triple A rating back from the folks who gave a triple A rating to all those bad mortgages???

The U.S. has been mounting up debt for the past 50 years to keep the country and world prosperous and free. Unfortunately and inevitably, we passed the tipping point and are in the part of the macroeconomic cycle where debt must be liquidated to bring things back to equilibrium. The crisis came to a boiling point under Obama but has has been building up steam for the past 30 years. In 1980, the national debt was 712 billion and in 1988 was 2.052 trillion under Ronald Reagan. The debt build up under George Bush was particularly egregious. It went from 5.727 trillion to 9.849 trillion. With the financial collapse of 2007-2008 and the ensuing recession, tax revenues have substantially declined. Two-thirds of the debt build up under Obama is attributable to the recession he inherited. I'm not playing the blame game, just citing facts. Unfortunately, politicians do play the blame game and Obama is taking the heat since the debt crisis came to a head under his watch. How effective he has been is a separate issue. David Stockman, Reagan's budget director, and Bruce Bartlett, a Treasury official under Bush, attribute the rise in the national debt mostly to tax cuts in order "to starve the beast" to get rid of federal programs many on the right of the political spectrum do not want. Whatever one's ideological bent, it's clear that the debt build up and crisis occurred because the U.S. government spends too much and takes in too little in taxes. Unfortunately, with today's ideological divide, our government seems dysfunctional in dealing with the problem.

I'm confused. What massive amount of money do we send to foreign countries every year?

surprised? I'm not. They have been playing with our economy and our futures with only politics in mind. And their politics are way off base. Will this affect Obama's chances? Ya know, I wish I could say yes, but people are just dumb enough to scare me. I hear daily, people defending Obama's blatant disregard for our country, our citizens and our Constitution.

The U.S. really needs a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. We need to take away the government's ability to spend recklessly. Over $14 trillion in debt and an estimated $1.5 trillion deficit this year alone are simply put, unacceptable. And what kind of plan do they come up with to handle this issue? A meager $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years? Those kinds of cuts are insignificant. The U.S. will still be producing over $1 trillion in deficit spending every year even with those cuts. The same would have been said even if they went up to $4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. The time has come for the U.S. to stop adding to the debt and start paying down the debt, not just making interest payments on the debt. The only way to do that is with a balanced budget amendment because it's clear that without one, the government can't control themselves when it comes to reckless spending. And if the democrats and republicans won't support a balanced budget amendment then the voters need to kick both parties out of power for good and start electing people that will support a balanced budget amendment.

Is anyone really surprise. The debt deal congress has nothing in it that will balance the budget or pay off our debts. Heck it still the government spending more than it takes in and still having to borrow more money. There is no longer term goal of getting us out of debt or even living within our means. If you saw someone living way beyond their means, in huge debt and then no doing anything to fix the problem, in fact looking to borrow more money and getting themselves even deeper in debt....you would do the same thing. Our government has failed to solve this problem or even come close to even trying to deal with it.By the way...anyoone else ticked off about this "super congress" they are forming? It is NOT constitutional.

Its time US mind its own business rather than interfering in other nation's problems. This was bound to happen sooner or later. With massive amounts of money being spent on unproductive wars in the name of fighting terror, falling into a debt trap was only a matter of time. The US must also look into its relations with Pakistan and the billions of dollars that has been given as aid to this nation.It will take some time and effort for the US to get back on rails and this will have an adverse effect on the world economy especially India with most of its IT business being US centered

Wow I didn't expect this and especially not before the weekend. Last I heard was the decision would be put off until Monday. Perhaps this is good for us. If it can be a wake up call for our spend, spend, spend Congress, then maybe some good can come of it. Those guys can't keep spending like 'drunken sailors' This is now part of Obama’s legacy. Right, wrong, or indifferent it happened on his watch, he gets credit and blame for everything. Credit for killing UBL has been his greatest achievement so far..this will be one of his worst, so far.