If Congress does not raise the country’s debt limit, the results will be “catastrophic,” a senior White House official said Sunday, the latest in a series of warnings from the Biden administration.
The comments came as Congress has been deadlocked on the issue since the federal government hit its borrowing limit in January. Since then, the Treasury Department has used a series of financial tricks to keep the government running.
“We would be remiss not to care, which is why we continue to explain how catastrophic a default would be not only for this economy, but would have ramifications around the world,” said Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Affairs. Management and Budget, she told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“It would be absolutely catastrophic,” he added. “We shouldn’t play political games with that. We have to get on with the job.”
President Biden has insisted that Republican lawmakers vote to pass the debt ceiling increase without conditions.
On Thursday, he released a budget plan that cuts deficits by nearly $3 trillion over a decade, though House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) quickly rejected it.
Members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus shared their own budget plan on Friday, spelling out spending cuts in exchange for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling.
Their demands include cutting domestic discretionary spending by nearly 25%.
Speaking Sunday, Young dismissed the Freedom Caucus’s plan.
“They would cut programs that … working families need. They would cut off and endanger our national security,” he said. “And guess what? It wouldn’t cut the deficit one cent.”
with cable news services
