Fitch downgrades U.S. credit from AAA to AA+

Ratings agency Fitch has downgraded the credit rating of the U.S. government from AAA to AA+ due to the country's declining fiscal stability and repeated last-minute budget negotiations.

The Tuesday decision makes Fitch the second agency to downgrade the United States' credit after Standard & Poor did so in 2011, Reuters reported. 

"In Fitch's view, there has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit until January 2025," the group stated.

Major stock market indices such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq Composite, and the S&P 500 declined on Wednesday following the downgrade.

The decision comes months after the resolution of a debt ceiling crisis that saw House Republicans extract budgetary concessions from the White House in exchange for raising the debt limit.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen railed against the decision, calling it "arbitrary and based on outdated data."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.