tyler matheson of cnbc is also here with us in washington with more on that. so, tyler, wouldn't take anything more than the threat of this happening to start feeling it. >> and the threat has already been made. the credit rating, of course, is an educated guess, a grade really by a credit rating service like standard & poor's or moody's, about how likely it is that a country will repay the principal and interest on its debt. for as long as you and i have been around, america's credit rating has been the best of them all, aaa, basically saying that america's debt is essentially risk free and it is priced as such. but the credit rating agencies are now saying that even if there is a global solution to the debt ceiling talks, that if the congress and president can't come together on a longer term fiscal stability plan, they may downgrade the debt and that will mean that the debt is riskier. what does that mean in practical terms? first, it means that borrowing costs for uncle sam, for taxpayers like you and me, are likely to go up. by one estimate according to jp