Loudoun Joins Protest of Moody’s Credit Watch

Loudoun County has joined other Northern Virginia jurisdictions in danger of losing their Aaa ratings from Moody’s to protest the possible downgrade and call on members of both houses of Congress to resolve their differences.

With a political standstill preventing agreement that would allow the United States to raise its debt ceiling, concerns are that failure to reach a deal could lead the country into default. The debt ceiling is the amount of money the United States allows itself to borrow, and by not raising it, the country could be forced to stop paying, or default on, some of its bills.

Moody’s warned that the partisan inaction at the federal level could impact local credit ratings, resulting in the response from regional leaders.The situation threatens to push interests rates up not only for the country, but for states, localities and individuals.

“Northern Virginia does not have a debt problem, the federal government does,” the leaders stated in the letter. “The continued inaction and partisan bickering over the very high amount of debt the federal government is carrying and how to deal with it is putting at risk the credit ratings of our Northern Virginia localities.

“For the first time, our local governments are facing the possibility of losing our Aaa credit rating from Moody’s Investor Service because of the federal government’s failure to deal with the ongoing debt crisis. This has reached crisis level and is impacting everyone in Northern Virginia, and we say enough is enough!”

The letter continues, “The time to act is now and we urge our leaders on Capitol Hill to set aside partisan differences, solve this ongoing crisis and come to a resolution of this problem for the good of us all.”

For the full text, click here.