U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue said Sunday that Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade America’s credit rating Friday should serve as a wake-up call for lawmakers to fix America’s pressing long-term fiscal imbalances.

“While we don’t agree with S&P’s decision to downgrade America’s credit rating, its action should be another powerful incentive for lawmakers to do the hard work necessary to get our fiscal house in order,” Donohue said in a statement. “While the Chamber supported the debt ceiling deal as an important first step, let’s not forget that the agreement only slows the increase in the rate of spending. Instead of adding $10 trillion in debt over the next decade, we will add $7 trillion to $8 trillion. That’s not good enough.” (RELATED: Axelrod: ‘This is essentially a tea party downgrade’)

Donohue also indicated that he believes reform should begin with America’s tax code and entitlement programs.

“We will never tackle debts and deficits, jumpstart this recovery, reduce uncertainty, and create millions of jobs until we overhaul our tax code and reform runaway entitlement programs that threaten to push us into insolvency,” he said. “This downgrade is additional proof that we can’t kick the can down the road any longer. The time to act is now.”