GOP senator: Credit agencies being misinterpreted

Portman also stressed that he had not yet read the Fitch report, but added that it was more evidence that the sort of spending cuts that Republicans are calling for in order to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling were necessary. The Treasury Department has said that the limit needs to be increased by Aug. 2. 

“I think most investors and the market, I think, understand we have adequate revenue to handle the interest to the bond holders,” he said. 

Moody’s said recently that the U.S. rating could be placed on negative watch if debt ceiling talks don’t seem to be progressing, while S&P decreased its outlook on U.S. debt to “negative” in April.

For his part, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an adviser to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2008 presidential campaign, said the Fitch statement was further proof that officials need to act. 

“There ought to be tremendous urgency,” Holtz-Eakin said at the news conference.