By Adam Pack
The United States government lost its last AAA credit rating Friday evening with Moody’s Ratings downgrading the country to its double-A category, citing in part rising debt burdens and high interest rates.
“This one-notch downgrade on our 21-notch rating scale reflects the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns,” Moody’s said in a statement. (RELATED: Trump’s ‘One, Big Beautiful Bill’ Suffers Early Setback After Conservative Backlash)
Other major ratings agencies, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings, downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA in 2011 and 2023 respectively.
The credit downgrade comes as Republican lawmakers are seeking to steer a massive tax and spending package through Congress, known as President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.”
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget estimates that the House version of the president’s budget reconciliation bill will add roughly $3.3 trillion to the debt through fiscal year 2034.
Fiscal hawks, including Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy and Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, have warned the budget package must incorporate more aggressive spending cuts to avoid adding to the deficit.
“[O]ur TRILLION DOLLAR debt interest payments are about to get even more expensive,” Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott wrote on X following the announcement of the credit rating downgrade. “It’s already more than we spend on our national defense each year! The ONLY way to solve this crisis is to balance our budget. Period.”
This is what happens when the United States when Congress pretends there’s no limit on what we can spend
The Uniparty™️ has utterly betrayed us
Time to dethrone The Uniparty™️—once and for all https://t.co/T4E18wRMCC pic.twitter.com/jdDVTdCL61
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) May 16, 2025
“This is what happens when the United States when Congress pretends there’s no limit on what we can spend,” Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee wrote on X Friday evening.
