No doubt the talking heads, pundits, and journalists in the mainstream media will blame the Bush Administration, Republicans in Congress, and even the Tea Party for Standard and Poors downgrade of Americas AAA credit rating for the first time in 70 years, but responsibility for the countrys financial mess and staggering levels of debt belongs to the Ruler and his Bread and Circuses administration for their unprecedented government spending and borrowing. Since President Obama took office in January 2009, the United States has embarked on the most ambitious failed experiment in Washington meddling in US history. Huge increases in government spending, massive federal bailouts, growing regulations on businesses, thinly veiled protectionism, and the launch of a vastly expensive and deeply unpopular health care reform plan, have all combined to instill fear and uncertainty in the markets. Free enterprise has taken a backseat to continental European-style interventionism, as an intensely ideological left wing administration has sought to dramatically increase the role of the state in shaping the US economy. The end result has been a dramatic fall in economic freedom, sluggish growth, poor consumer confidence, high unemployment, a collapsing housing market, and an overall decline in US prosperity, with more than 45 million Americans now reliant on food stamps thats over one seventh of the entire country.