The Biden administration released statements Friday evening disagreeing with Moody's Investors Service changing the United States credit outlook to"negative."
Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo promised that President Joe Biden has proposals to cut the budget and reduce the national deficit as a result. Moody's claimed to have changed the outlook from"stable" to"negative" because fiscal deficits remained large, which is causing debt affordability to weaken significantly.“While the statement by Moody’s maintains the United States’ Aaa rating, we disagree with the shift to a negative outlook.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre echoed a comment from Moody's when it claimed"continued political polarization" was another reason for the change. "Moody’s decision to change the U.S. outlook is yet another consequence of Congressional Republican extremism and dysfunction," Jean-Pierre said."Moody’s cites a number of recent actions by Congressional Republicans: repeatedly taking us to the brink of a government shutdown, shutting down Congress for three chaotic weeks because they were unable to unify around a leader, and holding the nation’s full faith and credit hostage.
The last time Moody's lowered the outlook to"negative" was in 2011, where it remained until 2013, when it reverted to"stable."