From TFA:

The main specific Fitch cited was “repeated debt-limit political standoffs and last-minute resolutions” that “have eroded confidence in fiscal management.” Can anyone dispute with a straight face that, here too, the blame lies with Republicans? The two big debt limit fights occurred in 2011 and 2023. In both instances, Republicans had just regained control of the House of Representatives and narrowed Democratic majorities in the Senate. In both instances, the GOP was itching to flex its muscles against a Democratic president with a presidential election one year away. In both instances, events were driven by extremist members of the GOP—Tea Partiers in 2011, the Freedom Caucus in 2023—who called for catastrophic (and economically destabilizing) cuts to the federal budget, and professed indifference (at least some of them) to the prospect of forcing a default on U.S. debt. In both instances, the Republican motive was performative to the point of undermining stable governance. And in both instances, a big-three credit-rating firm ended up downgrading the credit of the U.S. government—Standard & Poor’s in 2011, Fitch this week. (The third big-three firm, Moody’s, threatened a downgrade in 2011 but did not carry it out.)

It’s painfully obvious for anyone who’s paying attention that Republicans act like sociopaths. That they are able to distract their base so successfully with culture-war bullshit is why I’ve lost hope that the USA can ever be politically healthy.