It seems like the US is trying to blame everyone else for it's problem. If American politicians could solve their debt problem with the same passion and vigor that they attacked the downgrade of American debt, there wouldn't be a debt problem. The basic answer is that American politicians are attacking the S&P because it's put the spotlight on them. S&P has said it's not about the short term ability for the US to pay it's debts, it's about the US ability to, in the long term, solve it's dependence on borrowing money.
One thing that has come out of all this is that S&P has been criticized for getting it wrong on subprime mortgages before when they rated them as AAA right up to the very end. I guess I would say that maybe they're just being more realistic now and rating things as they see them rather than getting caught up in the hysteria or excitement of the moment as they did in the past.
Of course it's not as if the S&P is the only one calling the US government on the carpet for it's dependence on debt. China, the US's largest creditor, has also criticized the US dependence on debt. While the S&P downgrade is a problem, one would wonder what would happen if China suddenly pulled the plug and showed up to collect?
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