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Dr. Boozman's Check-up

The Cost of Failure

Nov 30 2011

The supercommittee’s failure to reach an agreement on how to cut the nation’s debt by at least $1.2 trillion is forcing credit rating agencies to rethink our government’s AAA rating.

Earlier this week, Fitch Ratings placed our AAA credit rating on a “negative outlook,” and warned that if the government doesn’t develop a plan that tackles our budget deficit, our rating will be downgraded within the next two years.

"The negative outlook reflects Fitch's declining confidence that timely fiscal measures necessary to place U.S. public finances on a sustainable path and secure the U.S. AAA sovereign rating will be forthcoming,” the agency said in a statement.

This comes on the heels of a Standard & Poor’s downgrade this summer and a week after Moody’s Investors Service affirmed its negative outlook on our nation’s credit.

The bottom line is that we can’t continue kicking the can down the road to deal with our financial problems in future years. The supercommittee was given the task to rein in spending and balance our budget and unfortunately they came up empty handed. We are in a dire situation where we must work to cut our costs or face the consequences that will cost us all even more.