U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz “said he was well aware of how the leadership had used his and others’ willingness to let a default happen as a negotiating chip, and said he didn’t mind at all. ‘We weren’t kidding around, either,’ he said. ‘We would have taken it down.'” (washingtonpost.com)

Well. Apparently the US Public has decided the onus is on the GOP.

“World Markets react to S&P Downgrade.”

Update: today’s nytimes.com Front Page.

“The Republican party just cost the US more money than they could possibly have saved via debt reduction. By threatening to default on our debt, they’ve lowered our credit rating, and increased the cost of borrowing in the future. Period.”

“We got 98% of what we wanted.” ~ Speaker Boehner, on the Debt Ceiling “compromise.”

Then, this happened. And they had the gall to blame President Obama, who gave up 98% of what he wanted in the interests of protecting social security, Medicare, and some basic commonsense institutions of government—and of getting the deal done in time. Here’s what Bill Maher had to say about it all.

Their words, not ours:

S&P’s downgrade followed last week’s debt-ceiling agreement that “falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.”

The ratings agency also blasted the partisan bickering that led to the debt ceiling fight. “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,” S&P said.