S&P Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating from AAA to AA+

Standard & Poor's on Friday downgraded the credit rating of the United States, removing its AAA status. To avoid a downgrade, S&P said the United States needed to raise the debt ceiling and develop a "credible" plan to tackle the nation's long-term debt. In its report Friday, S&P stated that the U.S. fell short on the latter issue. "The downgrade reflects our opinion that the 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." One of S&P's main criticisms of the debt plan was that it didn't address Social Security and Medicare and didn't allow for additional tax revenue. The downgrade puts the U.S. debt rating at the level of Belgium, but below the United Kingdom and Australia.