http://www.slate.com/id/2301171/
S&P Is Right. It's Congress' Fault.
The politics of sovereign-debt ratings downgrades.
By Annie Lowrey
Posted Monday, Aug. 8, 2011, at 3:47 PM ET
an excerpt:
In its note, the ratings agency does raise questions about the United States' long-term fiscal stability.
In a world in which one party refuses to raise taxes—any taxes at all—balancing the budget in a reasonable timeframe becomes very, very difficult. It means enormous cuts to defense and safety-net programs and to investment in infrastructure, education, and research. That does not mean good things for growth.
and further down:
But Washington threatened a debtpocalypse, if not a default, for 11 excruciating weeks.
Despite clear signs that the debt-ceiling impasse was hurting the economy, policymakers insisted on drawing the fight out until the very last minute. When it was all over,
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell promised to do it again the next time we need to raise the debt ceiling, and the time after that, and the time after that. We might be
able to pay our debts, but it is far from clear that we will always be
willing to pay them. Given all that, it hardly seems wrong for S&P to take our daft political climate into serious consideration.