"We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to 'AA+' from 'AAA' and affirmed the 'A-1+' short-term rating.
"We have also removed both the short-and-long-term ratings from CreditWatch negative," S&P said in a statement.
The downgrade, it said, reflects its opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan which 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".
"More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011," the agency said.
"Since then, we have changed our view of the difficulties in bridging the gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics any time soon."
LOLERZ!!!! From the same organization that gave AAA ratings to the CDO's and the Credit Default Swaps....
It's amazing how some love to immediately blame one side or the other when BOTH have been FUGGING you like ignorant pigs....Hopefully it isn't too late for us to realize that neither party has the best interest of this nation in mind and only their short term personal aspirations...
Nah.... it IS too late...
