I just pressed the button to send my article about Vladimir Putin's comments about America's fiscal irresponsibility when my inbox came alive with breaking, astounding, and disturbing news.

Standard & Poor's Friday night downgraded the U.S. debt rating to AA+ from AAA and, while removing the world's largest economy from CreditWatch, said the outlook was negative. "The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics," S&P said. "More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011."

In April of this year, Fox Business News, along with others, reported:

In an interview with the FOX Business Network Tuesday morning, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said there is no risk the United States will lose its ?AAA' credit rating. On Monday, Standard & Poor's lowered its outlook on the US, suggesting a downgrade of the country's credit rating could come in the next couple of years.

Catch that? "No risk." While every reasonable economist, analyst, and common American recognized the significance of America's problems, the Treasury Secretary looked the American people in the eye and said, "No risk." I did not have to search for the Secretary's remarks, either, because when I received this e-mail, I saved it knowing what would most likely happen.

Mind you, Mr. Geithner is not the only government bureaucrat or politician attempting to sprinkle fairy dust on this economy. Go back to 2007-2008. The "housing bubble" was small and contained in a few select markets. The defaults would be few and the impact minimal to the economy. We experienced a global recession as a result of bad loans, failed policies, and outright fraud blowing up in everyone's faces.

You know the rest of the story: massive bailouts to institutions given a free ride with taxpayer money, a new administration that criticized the spending of their predecessor and then rushing to increase the rate of federal spending at a pace never before experienced in America, and a Federal Reserve that is purposely doing what it can to devalue the American dollar in order to make repayment of our massive debt with cheaper dollars which our creditors dislike.

As a result of lethargy on the part of responsible Americans, and as a result of liberal spending policies imposed on us, our way of life is changing before our eyes. You can believe who you want, but recent events have shown me that the least trustworthy recommendations are coming from inside the beltway and other regions in the land of left-believe.

Live and learn. learn and live.