March 11, 2021 The US is becoming more of an outlier among countries with a gold-plated AAA credit rating. As its $28 trillion debt burden grows, will the rating companies continue to treat America as an exception? The US was downgraded one step by Standard & Poor’s in 2011 to AA+, but the country still has top rankings from the other big ratings firms, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings. The US is far out of kilter with other AAA nations like Germany, Australia, and Norway, according to Fitch data on federal debt to gross domestic product. The Senate’s latest bill will increase spending by $1.1 trillion in 2021 and nearly $500 billion in 2022, increasing debt-to-GDP to 109% this year.