There now appears to be only three possible outcomes to the debt hike negotiations, and all three would seem to lead to the eventual loss of the U.S.’s AAA credit rating. One possibility is that there is no deal, the debt hike is not raised, and much of the federal government is shutdown. The U.S. Treasury would still have enough revenues to avoid defaulting on the debt, but the credit agencies would downgrade our debt anyway.

The other two possibilities are the passages of either Speaker John Boehner’s, R-Ohio, or Majority Leader Harry Reid’s, D-Nev., debt hike plans. But, as The Examiner’s Phil Klein points out, while both plans would prevent a government shutdown, neither would produce a bipartisan agreement on a long-term plan to reduce the debt. The ratings agencies are now demanding such an agreement if the U.S. wants to avoid a downgrade. Since no long-term debt agreement is possible until either Obamacare is repealed or President Obama wins reelection, that downgrade now seems inevitable. The only question is who will get the blame.