The S&P downgrade is the fault of the Tea Party and its allies

Here is Standard and Poor's explanation for its decision to lower America's credit rating:

We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to 'AA+' from 'AAA' and affirmed the 'A-1+' short-term rating.We have also removed both the short- and long-term ratings from CreditWatch negative.

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.The outlook on the long-term rating is negative.

We could lower the long-term rating to 'AA' within the next two years if we see that less reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case.

Special attention should be paid to the second and fourth paragraphs. To summarize, the debt deal didn't go far enough. Had President Obama's "big solution- the deal he originally proposed, which Republicans rejected because it included tax increases (as any realistic plan to seriously address a $14.5 trillion deficit necessarily will have to)- we would have had a deal which would have cut the debt in half in ten years, taking
it well below the its level when the economy collapsed in 2008.

Standard and Poor's expanded on the fourth paragraph this way:

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.

Our opinion is that elected officials remain wary of tackling the structural issues required to effectively address the rising U.S. public debt burden in a manner consistent with a ‘AAA’ rating and with ‘AAA’ rated sovereign peers (Canada, France, Germany, and the U.K.).

When all is said and done, the downgrade is the direct result of the decision of Congressional Republicans- and especially the Tea Party- to hold the debt limit increase and the American economy in general hostage in order to secure a jerry-rigged series of spending cuts which would not, in the long run, have seriously addressed the deficit. The result will- at the very least- be a substantial increase in the deficit, the fall of the United States from its premier positon as a world economic power, and the prospect of contined brinksmanship and partisan games at a time when both parties need to pull together to work out a realistic plan to seriously address the national debt the only way it can be seriously addressed: by both cutting entitlements and raising taxes. The problem is far too big to be solved by either expedient alone.

Yesterday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) claimed at the Republican presidential debate here in Iowa that she had been "proven right" by the S&P decision to downgrade our national credit rating.

Wrong, Congressman Bachmann. S&P downgraded us in no small measure because of the decision by the Tea Party and its congressional allies to hold the debt limit hostage. And the position taken by you, Ron Paul, and the others who refused to support an increase in the debt limit under any circumstances are even more responsible for creating the impression at S&P that when it comes to addressing our national obligations, America's political leaders are simply not serious or responsible people.