Artful Dodger: I think you have to blame congress,especially the Republican hostage taking of the debt ceiling.Never before has the debt ceiling been leveraged, it would make any investor worry about carrying of debt.Frankly it has come to the point where Republicans seem so bent on the taking down of Obama, they would risk the whole economy laying in ruins to achieve their goal.I think Obama has been a gutless negotiator, but his errors are based on terrible judgement.The Republicans on the other hand seem determined to undermine every initiative, thinking that the worse things get in the USA the better chance for taking office.Kinda like winning the battle, but losing the war.

The Col: That's a left wing talking point.

There has to be a time in the history of the US where the out of control spending and the never ending raising of the debt ceiling stops. The PEOPLE have said now is the time. It has to stop now. It's gone way way too far And Obama has a significant role in the financial demise of the US. He has put us into more debt than any other president!

So I don't buy your agrument of "hostage" taking etc.

Obama is an incompetent. He owns this. He had TWO YEARS of House and Senate control. So don't blame the Republicans. This is all on him.

Artful Dodger: The people who passed this horrible compromise need to be blamed as well. It was said ahead of time, that if a balanced budget amendment were to be passed, our credit rating would most likely not be downgraded.

This compromise was a JOKE. Typical Washington DC JUNK.

The people who got elected this past time better learn to stick to their guns, or they will be voted out as well.

rod03801: True. And it's been a long time coming. Many administrations and Representatives share the blame for the fix we're in. They need to start pressing for a balanced budget amendment.

Artful Dodger:

The decision by Standard & Poor's to push America into the second division, when it comes to trustworthiness about paying its bills, puts the USA below the UK, Germany, France, Singapore, Finland and 14 other countries.

The reason it gives is what all America has been saying: Washington doesn't work. The S&P report says: "The political brinkmanship 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."

They say they think dealing with the debt remains a "contentious and fitful process". They say no-one is serious about dealing with the programmes that eat up money, like Medicare, health care for the elderly.

They single out Republicans for ruling out tax rises. "It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options... Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues."

My colleague Robert Peston has an excellent blog on the economics of this, but what about the politics?

President Obama will doubtless use the occasion to scold Congress again and urge politicians to come together not as Republicans or Democrats but as Americans. Some may be chastened enough to do that for a while.

But is fair to put all the burden on the legislators, as though failure to agree a consensus is a moral lapse? The president is fond of saying that Americans vote for divided government not dysfunctional government.

Yet the system, a much-loved relic of a different age, constructed for reasons little to do with the 21st Century, is almost designed to bring about dysfunctional government. The combination of a strict separation of legislature and executive, plus two-yearly congressional elections, all but encourages having different parties in control of different bits of government.

......... well lets blame everyone in Washington (or is linked to) then. Obama, Congress, the Senate, Lobbyists, Democrats and Republicans.

... The Tea Party, Murdoch via Fox and any other group that is only thinking about a few extra dollars in their wallet and not their country. Or puts politics or ideologies above that of the needs of the USA.

.. 31 years ago a process started that reduced the taxes from the rich by 35% to 35% from 70%, effectively reducing tax income from 70% of Americans by 50%. It seems America worked before hand.....