people will be nervous and afraid to open up their checkbook. now, it was two years ago that america downgraded -- >> so what is s&p thinking right now in the wake of yet another 11th hour deal? well, cnn asked the managing director, john chambers. >> the reason we're at double a, and not triple a, a couple of reasons, that you have to worry about the united states not paying its debt on time indicates it is not worthy of a triple a rating. we believe we'll be back here in january, worrying about the same issues, and given the composition of congress, it will probably still be acrimonius, so we'll just have to see, but i fear this is a permanent feature of our budgetary process. >> a permanent feature.