You'd better believe that S&P weighed the words they used in their downgrade press release very, very carefully. For me, a whole lot is said in just a couple of the paragraphs in the middle of the release...

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.

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.

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.

The difficulty in framing a consensus on fiscal policy weakens the government’s ability to manage public finances and diverts attention from the debate over how to achieve more balanced and dynamic economic growth in an era of fiscal stringency and private-sector deleveraging.

These words can be summarized very easily.

The plan that was recently negotiated by members of the U.S. Congress isn't nearly enough to slow the unsustainable escalation of U.S. public debt.

We don't believe that the American government has the ability or inclination to make the obviously needed changes.

Watch how much this costs us. Watch how just the loss of that single letter 'A' will weaken our economy and further add to our national debt. Watch how this single move will push us closer and more quickly to the inevitable massive changes in our way of life. Forget who to blame for how we got here. Thinking about who has the will and the ability to get us out of this problem is the more important question. I'd say that those who state their case in simple phrases and single syllable words aren't the ones we need right now.

I wish I could say that this announcement would change the positions of the political ideologues in elected office on both the left and right, but I don't think it will. They are neither smart enough to understand nor at all interested in serving the people who elected them.

It's a sad state of affairs that even now, the partisans will argue is the fault of their political opponents. Even worse, even more alarming, is that there are some who will argue that a downgrade in our credit rating isn't all that important. One of them is running for President.