U.S. always had ability to pay its creditors

So Standard & Poor’s has decided to downgrade U.S. creditworthiness from AAA to AA+. This is a downgrade to the borrowings of the most secure, most highly traded, most liquid country in the world.

In times of market turmoil like we have just seen, other countries, large institutions and individual lenders flock to the safety of lending to the U.S. In a word, U.S. paper is considered by the market to be ultrasafe.

All the recent talk of a default if the debt ceiling had not been raised was bogus. The U.S. always had enough revenue to pay the interest to its creditors. As a country we do need to get our spending under control, but despite our large debt we have always met our repayment obligations.

So, if interest rate charges go up because of this downgrade and we consumers have to pay more, we have those brilliant S&P financial wizards who consistently rated mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations as AAA to thank. That alone tells me what their opinion is worth.

State Rep. David Harris

66th District

Arlington Heights