Everyone concentrated on the bit about a gridlocked Washington and Republican refusal to raise taxes in the middle of a recession. But oddly enough, the left forgot to mention the whole part about the essential need for entitlement reform and reduction of long-term debt. Funny how they, er, accidentally forgot those parts.

First, entitlement reform. From S&P downgrade statement:

In addition, the plan envisions only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability.

The statement also confirms that “structural” changes (read: changes to non-discretionary spending) must be made prior to any restoration of the prime AAA rating.

Next, it’s the debt, stupid.

Beers called the U.S. Treasury Department’s criticism of the credit rating agency’s analysis a “complete misrepresentation.” Even with the debt limit agreement passed by Congress, he said, “the underlying debt burden of the U.S. is rising and will continue to rise over the next decade.”

Beers is David Beers, head of sovereign ratings for Standard & Poor’s. He confirmed that our massive heaps of debt need to be addressed before we can fix the problem. Unfortunately, entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare have a combined total of more than $114 trillion in unfunded liabilities, meaning unless we reform those entitlements we’re just looking at the beginning stages of our historic debt burden.

What happens if we don’t address these problems? Get ready for downgrade 2.0 — Armageddon edition.

The credit rating agency’s managing director, John Chambers, tells ABC’s “This Week” that if the fiscal position of the U.S. deteriorates further, or if political gridlock tightens even more, a further downgrade is possible.

Chambers also said Sunday that it would take “stabilization and eventual decline” of the federal debt as a share of the economy as well as more consensus in Washington for the U.S. to win back a top rating.

While the Obama Administration is trying to shoot the messenger by questioning S&P’s credibility, nothing the agency has said is factually inaccurate. The agency, considered your go-to sovereign ratings folks, are simply raising the alarm bells we should have heard a long time ago. Don’t blame Standard & Poor’s for telling the truth. Blame entitlement-addicted Americans and spending-addicted politicians for driving us to this point. Think of S&P as the backup alarm on your car. You don’t blame the alarm for alerting you to the wall you’re about to hit.

Hey, you know what else Barack Obama inherited from George Bush? The prime AAA rating. Three years later and this executive experience-lacking, economic illiterate, cult of personality empty suit managed to rack up trillions of dollars in debt, leave us with 9.1% unemployment, and lose our credit rating for the first time in history. Hope and change, baby. Hope and change.