That and "political brinksmanship" by which Republicans turned a previously routine debt ceiling extension into a doomsday scenario. The only thing Obama did to "cause" this was give in to the Republicans eagerness to destroy the US economy for the sake of the most important entitlement of all: Millionaire and corporate tax breaks that have been SO beneficial to the national economy. At some point a rational person gives up a decade of tax breaks to save the country from bankruptcy; when 1 out of every 4 dollars on the planet is in America but the federal government owes $10 trillion to itself, the US public and various private US institutions, that time has come. Spin it anyway you want, but what this ultimately amounts to is that S&P just told America to quit playing dangerous games with our economy and raise our freaking taxes for the first time in a decade.