The US would hit its debt ceiling limit of $16.7 trillion by October, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said here on Monday urging the Congress to take appropriate measures to raise the ceiling.
“Congress should act as soon as possible to meet its responsibility to the nation and to remove the threat of default,” Lew wrote in a letter to the Congress.
“Under any circumstance — in light of the schedule, the inherent viability of cash flows, and the dire consequences of miscalculation — Congress must act before the middle of October,” he said noting that by mid-October the Treasury would have exhausted the extraordinary measures it holds to keep the US from breaching its debt ceiling.
The White House reiterated that it would not negotiate the issue with the Republicans.
“We will not negotiate with Republicans in Congress over Congress’s responsibility to pay the bills that Congress has racked up.... It is Congress’s responsibility to maintain the full faith and credit of the United States.
“We have never defaulted and we must never default. That is our position, 100 per cent, full stop,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily news conference.
“Obviously, we are going to be dealing with Congress on the need to fund the government.
“The President has put forward a clear compromise proposal, a broad compromise proposal that would reduce the deficit significantly, including through savings in our entitlement programmes, in a balanced way.
“And we continue to await a response to that proposal which has been on the table now for many, many months,” he said.
“But Congress has basically two responsibilities: It has to pay its bills, and it has to vote on a budget. We hope that Congress fulfils those two basic responsibilities,” Carney said.