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Loss of AAA Rating for U.S. Credit Underscores Grave Consequences of Trump’s Budget-Busting Bill

  • May 16, 2025
  • Ben Ritz

WASHINGTON — Today, Ben Ritz, Vice President of Policy Development at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and Director of PPI’s Center for Funding America’s Future, issued the following statement on Moody’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating from AAA:

“Even as all the other major ratings agencies downgraded U.S. credit over the past 15 years, Moody’s held firm in maintaining our government’s AAA credit rating. That today even Moody’s has lost its once-unshakable confidence in the sustainability of U.S. fiscal policy is more than a canary in the coal mine: America cannot afford a ‘big beautiful bill’ with policies that would add more than $5 trillion to our national credit card over the next decade if permanently enacted. No lawmaker who supports this budget-busting boondoggle or anything like it moving forward can call themselves a ‘deficit hawk’ ever again.”

Read more PPI analysis of the “Big Beautiful Bill” and its grave fiscal consequences:

  • GOP Doubles Down on Deceptive Budget-Busting Tax Plan
  • How Trump’s BBB is Shaping Up to Be an Even Bigger Mess Than Biden’s
  • Congressional Republicans Take Dangerous Step Towards Ending Budget Enforcement
  • CBO Reports Highlight How Unpaid-For TCJA Extension Would Hurt Our Economy

Launched in 2018, the Progressive Policy Institute’s Center for Funding America’s Future works to promote a fiscally responsible public investment agenda that fosters robust and inclusive economic growth. To that end, the Center develops fiscally responsible policy proposals to strengthen public investments in the foundation of our economy, modernize health and retirement programs to reflect an aging society, transform our tax code to reward work over wealth, and put the national debt on a downward trajectory.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org. Find an expert at PPI and follow us on Twitter.

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Media Contact: Ian O’Keefe – iokeefe@ppionline.org

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