The prospect of President Barack Obama being tarred with the once unthinkable loss of the country's triple-A debt rating loomed ever closer on Thursday as politicians remained deadlocked in a battle over the deficit.

The possibility of a downgrade - of the country whose creditworthiness has heretofore been more trusted than any - was real.

David Wilson, a senior director at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, told lawmakers on Wednesday that 'you're right to worry' about a likely downgrade in the US rating.

"It could happen," he told the House of Representatives financial services committee.

"It could be a big thing."

Unchanged since 1917, the United States's gold-standard 'AAA' credit rating is almost as old as ratings themselves, invented by John Moody in 1909.

The idea that the country could lose it was unimaginable when Obama took office in January 2009, despite the country's recession; until recent months it was completely off the radar.


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