Moody’s Investors Service, one of the nation’s most watched credit raters, says that Obama’s rhetoric about the U.S. credit rating collapsing is hyperbole. If Congress fails to lift the debt ceiling, Moody’s indicates that the Treasury Department would most certainly continue to pay interest on the U.S. debt. Obama claims that unless Congress raises the $16.7 trillion limit, the nation will be at risk of default. Of course, the only “risk” is if Obama pushes Treasury to default. The Moody’s memo notes: “We believe the government would continue to pay interest and principal on its debt even in the event that the debt limit is not raised, leaving its creditworthiness intact. The debt limit restricts government expenditures to the amount of its incoming revenues; it does not prohibit the government from servicing its debt. There is no direct connection between the debt limit (actually the exhaustion of the Treasury’s extraordinary measures to raise funds) and a default.”