What does it mean now the United States has been downgraded to AA+ and is Obama to blame for it?

It means our fiscal reputation has been damaged by our current president's checkbook lust. He has us so far in debt now that our great - grandchildren will still be paying off his wild spending spree. Our worldwide fiscal reputation is now so damaged that other countries like China are now likely poised to exploit our financial weakness to gain global superiority. Its quite a frightening trend. Another disconcerting change with this president is the way he kowtows to dictators and apologizes for supposed American slights. As an American I have been deeply embarrassed by his lack of pride in our country. I could go on for quite some time about all the facets of our down-turned rep and how our president contributes to it, but you only asked about the credit rating, so I'll stay on topic.

Republicans will try to put the blame on Obama. It was Clinton & a Republican Congress that deregulated the Banking system over turning the Glass-Steagall Act. It was also 2 wars, 10 yrs of tax cuts and a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan on the charge card, not to mention the beaurocracy that is known as Homeland Security and the largest defense spending spree since the cold war, that gave us the deficit we have. Blame Obama? Of course!

In simplest terms, it means higher interest rates if you take out a loan or a mortgage.

And no, Obama is not to blame for it.

The S&P report specifically blames Republicans (and more than once).

For example, this quote is from page 4:

"We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act."

It means we need a new Congress that gets along, and stop the 2 Wars now not wait til 2014 when the taxpayers has tossed over 3 TRILLION into so far. Call and write to your Congressman since many are worried about being re elected next year. I will not re elect my Senator if he kissed my gas as he does for big oil

The time has finally come for The United States to realize that it can't just spend money with careless abandon. President Obama is only partly to blame for this debt. . it has been going on for many years now.

I can only answer the 2nd part sorry. Obama is not to blame the government is for overspending. If we hadn't borrowed so much $ over all these years we wouldn't be in this mess.