KEITH HENNESSEY: Understanding The S&P Report On U.S. Creditworthiness. “Given the President’s apparent budget strategy, there is at the moment a vanishingly small chance of a big medium-term or long-term deal like that described by S&P as necessary to avoid a possible downgrade, ($3-4 trillion over 10 years, with even bigger long-term changes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid). The greatest obstacle to constructive negotiations is the President’s attack rhetoric, in which he today accused Congressional Republicans of ‘doing away with health insurance for … an autistic child’ and potentially causing future bridge collapses like the one in Minnesota that killed 13 people. Maybe the S&P report will scare the President’s team into treating the long-term problem seriously rather than using it as a campaign weapon. I’m not holding my breath.”