Fitch downgrades US credit rating, citing mounting debt and political divisions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fitch Ratings has downgraded the United States government’s credit rating, citing rising debt at the federal, state, and local levels and a “steady deterioration in standards of governance” over the past two decades.

The rating was cut Tuesday one notch to AA+ from AAA, the highest possible rating.

The new rating is still well into investment grade.

The decision illustrates one way that growing political polarization and repeated Washington standoffs over spending and taxes could end up costing US taxpayers.

A lower credit rating, over time, could raise borrowing costs for the US government.

It’s only the second time in the nation’s history that its credit rating has been cut.

In 2011, the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s stripped the US of its prize AAA rating after a prolonged fight over the government’s borrowing limit.

The Government Accountability Office, in a 2012 report, estimated that the 2011 budget standoff raised Treasury’s borrowing costs by $1.3 billion that year.

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