The firm, Standard & Poor's, dropped the bond rating from Triple-A, the highest there is, to Double-A Plus, saying the state showed "weak budget practices" through the patchwork spending plan.
"Congress leaves it to the states, states leave it to the cities and counties, and the cities and counties leave it to, let's face it, fairly low-level political patronage employees with very weak budgets," said Roy Schotland, a professor of law at Georgetown University.
QUESTION FROM NEDN: Until recently Obama finally used the tool of getting citizens to call their congressmen and get (albeit a weak resolution) the budget deal passed.
"Passing a weak constitutional balanced budget amendment only four legislative days after ramming through massive deficit spending is quite an audacious stunt," Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky).
But several countries in the region now have higher debt burdens and weaker budget positions than they had in 2008, S.&P. said.
Desperate Tory spinners – who are no doubt currently taking it in turns to rock in the foetal position – are hoping to portray this as a smear campaign from a Labour party stung by a weak response to the budget.
The budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year will be the first item on the agenda, including a supplementary spending package to boost the economy and help households suffering from the higher import costs from a weak yen.After the budget, and crucial local elections in April, harder tasks loom.
But "Shady Lady" has all too many deficiencies: an overreliance on narration ("The situation seems hopeless," intones Michael Dorn, from "Star Trek: The Next Generation"); an apparently weak effects budget; an awkwardly applied musical score; and trite dialogue ("I've got a bad feeling about this").
Mr. Sarkozy has previously floated an idea he calls "the golden rule," a legal requirement for a balanced budget, and a weak version has passed both houses of Parliament, where his center-right party has a majority.
Struggling with the enormous budget deficit, a weak currency and an anemic recovery, Britain is facing the prospect of a new period of austerity as painful as anything in at least a generation.
