Moody’s decision to join other major ratings agencies in downgrading the U.S.’s once-pristine credit rating could have a tangible impact on Americans’ wallets. The agency has dropped the U.S. sovereign credit rating—an assessment of the country’s ability to pay its debts—down one level from the highest possible Aaa to Aa1.

Now, as then, we stand at a crossroads. Will we restore Hamiltonian principles of fiscal prudence, or continue down a path where downgrades become defaults and our creditors decide the terms of American fiscal policy?