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Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
WASHINGTON | Fri Jan 4, 2013 10:18am EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it is vital for Congress to quickly resolve future tax and spending feuds, and raise the U.S. borrowing authority to avoid economic uncertainty.
"It is quite clear that the economy will be better if Congress does its job and does what it routinely has done historically which is raise the debt limit without problem," Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview on Bloomberg television.
Speaking just days after President Barack Obama and lawmakers settled a hard-fought "fiscal cliff" deal to avert tax hikes and spending cuts, he warned a battle on borrowing costs and the budget might lead the U.S. to risk a credit downgrade.
"I think we really are playing with dynamite with the debt ceiling," Krueger said in a separate interview on MSNBC. "Just go back to August 2011, we saw confidence plunge when Congress played Russian roulette with the debt ceiling. We saw job growth grind to almost a halt. So the economy will certainly do better if Congress does what it normally does, which is raise the debt ceiling without drama."
(Reporting By Margaret Chadbourn, Anna Yukhananov, Doug Palmer; Editing by Vicki Allen)
Investing and Taxes Simplified
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Comments (35)
I think all the House has to do is pass a very specific spending authorization that allows the Treasury to borrow money to pay the interest/principal that is due.
Without a budget for the past few years, I don’t really see any reason to pay anything else. Everybody knows that when you run an organization without any budget discipline, you get overspending. Everybody knows that.
Jan 04, 2013 10:42am EST -- Report as abuse
We were “playing with dynamite” when the White House,specifically Barack Obama, insisted on spending money we didn’t have!
Jan 04, 2013 10:45am EST -- Report as abuse
Jan 04, 2013 10:47am EST -- Report as abuse
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