not need to think about. in a way our whole life depends on america having a good credit rating. tonight it's been downgraded for the first time, changing our rating from aaa to aa-plus. i'm joined now by jerad bernstein. mr. bernstein is now a senior fellow at the center for budget and policy priorities. jerad, thanks for your time. >> my pleasure, great to be here. >> standard and poor's has downgraded the united states. moody's and the other agencies have not. what's the importance there? >> the importance there is many fold. first of all, they are one of three and it's easy to think oh, my goodness, u.s. has been downgraded, end of story. no, as long as the other two have us at aaa, which they do, and have asserted they'll keep us there for awhile. lots of things probably won't happen. if all three downgraded at the