I have long said that Republicans politicians are seditionists who are intentionally working against economic recovery in their lust for power. In their most recent act of economic terrorism, they brought the country to the brink of default, and would have driven it over the edge had not Democrats caved in, trying to prevent Republicans from destroying the economy, more so than they already have. It came too late. One of the three credit rating agencies downgraded the US credit rating from AAA to AA+ for the first time in history. While Obama and Democrats struggled in vain to prevent the downgrade, Republicans remained silent, but the moment the downgrade came, they immediately blamed Obama for what they caused themselves. Republican mission accomplished.

The Republicans, led by the Tea Party, have finally succeeded in another step in their quest to wreck the US economy, oddly believing that it will help them win the 2012 election. Their slash and burn, no-revenue dogma that won out in the manufactured debt crisis that came to a head last Monday failed at the one goal it should have set for themselves; that is, to calm the markets and provide assurance of the strength of the US economy. Their 24/7 assault on the economy and job recovery, all in the name of taking down the President, only succeeded in inflicting the damage that business leaders, banks, and the Treasury begged them not to do. We are now reaping what the Republican Congress has sown. Not only are the markets jittery after the plunge of worldwide markets yesterday, we were just rewarded with a nice weekend starter: "The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics." "More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011." "Since then, we have changed our view of the difficulties in bridging the gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government’s debt dynamics any time soon." … [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

The S&P evaluators recognize what Republicans refuse to admit. Balancing the budget on the backs of the poor and middle classes is not possible. Republican trickle-down economics have already gushed-up most of our nation’s wealth into the hands of the top 2% and criminal corporations. But these are the people that Republicans represent, and their refusal to compromise, combined with their criminal blackmail, brought S&P to their conclusion. The straw that broke the camel’s back may well have come Thursday when Bought Bitch Mitch McConnell promised to repeat the blackmail anytime the nation requires a debt limit increase.

Rachel Maddow dedicated five segment of her show to this. Here are two of them. In the first, Rachel interviews Business Editor Louise Story, who explains how S&P is merely reflecting the market’s response.

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The only thing that weakens US credit is Republican intransigence and blackmail.

In the second, Rachel discusses the practical effects of the downgrade with Columnist Ezra Klein.

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The decision was based on political, not economic criteria. How can we expect the world to trust our credit when Republicans want us to default for political gain?