Standard and Poors Gave US Early Warning

The United States lost its triple AAA credit rating a couple days ago from Standard and Poor's Rating Agency. This obviously had an impact on the Stock Market today, as can be seen by the 635 point drop of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Although Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and U.S. President Barack Obama both criticized the Rating Agency for their decision, I think Standard and Poor's gave the United States plenty of warning ahead of time, to prevent a downgrade. For example, On April 18, 2011, I blogged about a warning given to the U.S. by Standard and Poor's that the U.S. needed to proactively deal with the deficit to maintain the top credit rating. This was nearly four months ago and the U.S. waited literally to the last minute to raise the debt ceiling and allow the government the power to borrow in the financial markets to meet its debt obligations. This was not only poor judgement, but poor leadership from both parties. This issue should have been dealt with in a timely manner.

Instead, leaders from both parties wanted to play politics, and try to score political points for their hardened stances. The American people were not fooled. As a matter fact, a poll released the other day, showed that the U.S. congress had an 82% disapproval rating, which was the highest on record since the poll was first conducted back in 1977! The same poll showed that the majority of the the American people felt the debt ceiling debate was not about doing what's right for the country, but purely about trying to gain political advantages. I am happy the American people are finally waking up! It's taken long enough!! This not only costs the United States its stellar Credit rating, it spooked the markets, and as a result, millions of dollars in wealth have disappeared in the Stock Market, resulting from a broad fall in stock prices. Although I do think it sounds funny to say the U.S. needs to take on more debt to pay its debt, there is a time and a place for that debate, and these politicians obviously chose the wrong time to have it!


Rather than conducting two Wars that have become insanely expensive, or what the treasury secretary called a mistake - a 700 billion dollar tax break for the rich (that the U.S. needs to borrow to do), America should be making wiser choices in the first place. Hopefully this is a lesson to all of us, that if our leaders can't get the job done, than they should no longer be the leaders! There is too much at stake right now, and the American people need to take their responsibility as citizens seriously, and vote in people who remember their role - public servants! This means finding ways to create jobs, moving in a direction that gets the economy moving again, and knowing the right time and place to have specific debates that help rather than harm the people and the image of the United States.