Relying primarily on the comment of one New York financier made to the Wall Street Journal, Republicans have begun floating the notion that if the failure to raise the debt ceiling means the U.S. government misses a few interest payments on its debts, it won’t be that big of a deal. So we checked in with the ratings agencies to see what they thought of this. Short answer: It would be a BFD.

David Kurtz

David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.