The US credit rating has been downgraded. But there’s an easy fix for our debt | Robert Reich

Instead of cutting taxes on the richest Americans - who hold much of the country's debt - simply raise them

On Friday, the credit rating of the United States was downgraded. Moody's, the ratings firm, announced that the government's rising debt levels would grow further if the Trump Republican package of new tax cuts were enacted. This makes lending to the US riskier.

Moody's is the third of the three major credit-rating agencies to downgrade the credit rating of the United States.

They'll pay even more interest on the growing debt - to the super-rich.

They'll pay higher interest rates on all other long-term debt. (As higher rates on treasury bonds waft through the economy, they raise borrowing costs on everything from mortgages to auto loans.)

The debt crisis will give Republicans even more excuse to do what they're always wanting to do: slash safety nets. So many Americans could lose benefits they rely on, such as Medicaid and food stamps.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com