The credit rating agency Fitch on Tuesday downgraded the credit rating, citing what it called a “steady deterioration in standards of governance” in the past two decades.

It also pointed to rising debt at the federal, state, and local levels of government. The agency also critiqued what it called repeated standoffs over attempts to raise the debt ceiling.

What does this mean? Fitch had previously rated the U.S. government with the government’s highest rating of AAA. Now the government has an AA+ rating.

Fitch had warned earlier this year, while Congress and the President debated how to raise the debt ceiling, that the U.S. could suffer a downgrade in its credit rating. Another credit agency, Standard & Poor’s downgraded their rating of the United States in 2011.

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