Credit Where It's Due

The Standard and Poors rating agency has downgraded U.S. securities from AAA to AA+ for the first time in history. In a statement issued by S&P, they pointed to the protracted hostage-taking over the debt ceiling as a major factor in their decision. Key points:

"The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy. . . Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 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."

So the teatards "won," if dragging down the economy and the credit of the U.S. government is winning. Well played, wingers!