I feel like I’ve said this a lot lately, but Joe Biden has a lot of gall.

I think there’s no question about it. He’s done such a horrible job on the economy, driving us into record inflation spurred on by reckless spending. But then he tries to take “credit” for all kinds of things he had nothing to do with or that aren’t true. He tries to label his failures a success, even calling the mess he’s put forth “Bidenomics” (as though that were something of which to be proud).

But there’s only so much you can spin, and there’s no getting away from the facts.

Now, some of those facts may just have caught up to Joe Biden.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded the country’s credit rating one level from “AAA” to “AA+” because of the growing debt and battles over the debt limit.

NBC Nightly News was the only one of the big three broadcast networks to cover the U.S. credit limit being downgraded by Fitch. pic.twitter.com/kQ8aNstz8V

— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) August 1, 2023

Fitch wrote:

There has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit until January 2025..

The repeated debt-limit political standoffs and last-minute resolutions have eroded confidence in fiscal management.

This comes after Biden raised the debt limit. Fitch is concerned about the failure to address it and also pointed to increased “political polarization.”

This comes at a time when the Fed has raised interest rates by 5.5 percentage points since March 2022 to bring down Bidenflation, and this move by Fitch may make things even worse by pushing rates even higher.

Heather Long, the Washington Post economic columnist, also points to the concerns about expected “fiscal deterioration” for the next three years.

Wow.

Fitch says it downgraded US gov’t debt for 3 reasons:
1) “the expected fiscal deterioration over the next 3 years”
2) “a high and growing general government debt burden”
3) the erosion of governance (compared to other AAA rated peers) https://t.co/918Cm0W5gQ

— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) August 1, 2023

That’s not sounding like what Joe Biden has done is getting a rocking endorsement there, or that we can expect great things coming up.

This is only the second time in our history that our credit rating has been cut. The last time was by Standard & Poor’s in 2011, again, after a protracted debt limit fight. That was under the Obama/Biden administration, and here again, we have it under Biden.

The Biden team is doing their best to spin.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen blasted the downgrade in a statement that called it “arbitrary and based on outdated data.”

Unfortunately, their failure to properly govern is not “arbitrary.” And because they’ve spent like drunken sailors, we now have so much more debt to deal with because they think that they will never be called on it.

Yellen doesn’t see how they reached this decision. But this is the same person who kept telling us that inflation was “transitory”. She’s even tried to blame the American people for it, saying it was their fault for their “splurging.” Talk about projection; look in the mirror, that’s all on the head of the Biden administration. They keep sticking their head in the sand when it comes to having reality on spending and debt.

Naturally, the Biden team did all they could to try to blame it on…wait for it… former President Donald Trump, because they’re trying to deflect.

A “senior Biden administration official” called it “a bizarre and baseless decision for Fitch to make now.”

“It simply defies common sense to take this downgrade as a result of what was really a mess caused by the last administration and reckless actions by congressional Republicans,” the official said.

Yes, how dare those Republicans ask for the Democrats to adhere to a debt limit and curb spending! How dare that rascally Trump make Biden spend so much and so recklessly?

The Biden official tried to downplay the effect it might have, saying he didn’t think it would cause any big increase in rates. So naturally, given how they are wrong on everything, expect increases in rates.

Biden’s re-election campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz even tried calling this a “Trump downgrade” and blaming the “extreme MAGA Republican” agenda.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also tried to blame Trump and the Republicans.

A new statement on Fitch Ratings’ downgrade, from White House @PressSec Karine Jean-Pierre: pic.twitter.com/9yijaRvS8D

— David Gura (@davidgura) August 1, 2023

Pro tip? The problem isn’t coming from the folks calling for curbs on spending — the Republicans. The problem is coming from inside the house, you Democrats. You can try, but you can’t deflect away from it. The Biden team’s efforts are pretty desperate. But they know this isn’t going to reflect well on them before the election.