credit rating Archives

New Jersey – 8 Credit Downgrades Under Christie’s “Leadership”

And he wants to do the same thing for the nation!

New Jersey had its credit rating cut one step by Standard & Poor’s, handing Chris Christie his eighth downgrade, the most ever for a Garden State governor.

The reduction to A, the sixth-highest level, with a stable outlook follows a Sept. 5 downgrade by Fitch Ratings. It gives New Jersey the same general-obligation grade as California, which is on track for an upgrade as revenue exceeds Democratic Governor Jerry Brown’s estimates. Only Illinois has lower ratings than New Jersey among U.S. states.

“New Jersey continues to struggle with structural imbalance,” S&P analyst John Sugden in New York said in a statement today. “The governor’s decision to delay pension funding, while providing the necessary tools for cash management and budget control, has significant negative implications for the state’s liability profile.”

Christie, a 52-year-old Republican in his second term, broke his promise this year to make $2.5 billion in extra pension payments in fiscal 2014 and 2015 to help trim unfunded obligations. He has called for more changes to the plan as costs for employee benefits crowd out other state spending.

America’s Credit Downgraded, Another Win For Republicans

The Standard & Poors rating agency has, for the first time in America’s history, downgraded America’s Credit ratings, from a Triple A rating to AA+ ratings. The agency cites the political system in Washington as one of the reasons why the credit downgrade happened.

“We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process. We also believe that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration agreed to this week falls short of the amount that we believe is necessary to stabilize the general government debt burden by the middle of the decade.

Our lowering of the rating was prompted by our view on the rising public debt burden and our perception of greater policymaking uncertainty, consistent with our criteria (see “Sovereign Government Rating Methodology and Assumptions,” June 30, 2011, especially Paragraphs 36-41). Nevertheless, we view the U.S. federal government’s other economic, external, and monetary credit attributes, which form the basis for the sovereign rating, as broadly unchanged.”

A credit downgrade is serious business. It means that interest rates on the government, banks and ultimately the American people can rise. Borrowing money at a higher interest rate means we all pay back more towards our debt, whether it’s the government borrowing from China, or a middle class American borrowing to buy a home, a higher interest rate is never a good thing.

This is the work of Republicans and their effort to bring this economy to its knees. This decision by Standard & Poors is a loss for America, but another win for Republicans.