Marc Abear: Common sense is gone and leadership is in short supply

To The Daily Sun,

The Moody's rating agency reduced the U.S. credit rating to AA1 last month. Why? Because Congress cannot get a handle on the nation's growing debt; it refuses to balance the budget. Moody's said it doesn't see any budget proposals addressing the country's spending problem.

Moody's was the last credit rating agency to keep the U.S. rating at AAA. On May 16, Moody's joined S&P Global and Fitch by lowering the U.S. rating. Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. in 2023, S&P Global Ratings did so 2011.

Multiple administrations from both parties have failed to act to eliminate annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs. Moody’s expects congressional policies to keep moving the nation in the wrong direction.

America’s continuing deficits keep adding to America's $36.8 trillion debt. Moody's notes America’s fiscal performance is likely to deteriorate relative to its own past and compared to other highly-rated sovereigns. Our days of being a rich nation are over.

The U.S. does have economic and financial strengths. Those strengths do not counterbalance the decline in fiscal metrics. U.S. federal debt has risen sharply due to fiscal deficits. Since 2000, federal spending has risen and tax revenue has not kept pace. As deficits and debt have grown, interest rates have risen, interest payments on government debt have spiked.

It is time for Congress to take note. It is time to stop what Congress is doing. We need to start working on a way out of this mess.

The Moody’s downgrade is nothing, if not a signpost telling us to stop adding to our national debt. It's unacceptable for a great country like America to harm its own credit rating. We have options to fix this. It can be done quickly, with leadership.

Marc Abear

Meredith