Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement following Fitch Ratings’ decision to downgrade the United States’ long-term foreign currency issuer default rating to AA+ from AAA.

“Let’s be clear: the radical and unjustifiable actions of extreme MAGA Republicans are creating the excuses for market participants, including Fitch, to question the resiliency and recovery of the U.S. economy. Under their extremist agenda in the House, Republicans not only engaged in a months-long brinkmanship over our nation’s debt, but on many occasions, encouraged what would’ve been a catastrophic debt default. Earlier this year, I warned my Republican colleagues several times that just the mere threat of a default, on its own, could lead to market volatility and a credit rating downgrade. Moreover, under twice-impeached, three times indicted, found liable for sexual assault, former President Trump, Republicans gave lavish tax giveaways to big, wealthy corporations, and through incompetence, made the pandemic far worse here than in other countries, all of which drove up our nation’s deficit and hurt communities everywhere. Additionally, Trump and extreme MAGA Republican efforts to incite a riot and undermine our nation’s democracy on January 6th, according to Fitch, also represent a clear deterioration in governance.

“We must call this what it is: a Trump downgrade. This decision makes clearer than ever that extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress are a danger to the growth and stability of our nation’s economy, and we must do everything in our power to thwart their extremism before it’s too late.”

###