[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12530]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      STANDARD & POOR'S OWN RATING

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. As Congress struggles to come up with this deal over 
government debt, we all know that all we have to do is raise the debt 
ceiling and that the chaos the country is being thrown into is not 
necessary. Simple: raise the debt ceiling, protect the credit of the 
U.S., and then debate how to cut our debt afterwards.
  We're trapped in a debate where there's another game going on over 
our heads, and that game involves the rating services, in particular, 
Standard & Poor's.
  Rating agencies help put the U.S. economy in the dumper in 2008. 
Dodd-Frank was the first effort to hold rating agencies accountable 
when, in fact, they should have been subject to civil fraud charges as 
well as revocation of their license at the SEC.
  Just a few months after Dodd-Frank passed, Standard & Poor's strikes 
back with a threat to downgrade U.S. debt, which would cost U.S. 
taxpayers billions of dollars a year in extra interest payments.
  The U.S. is sovereign. Standard & Poor's is not.
  When we work to raise the debt ceiling, we should also raise 
questions about Standard & Poor's. Maybe it's time to downgrade 
Standard & Poor's to junk status.

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