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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Geithner Joins Senate Dems To Warn Stubborn House GOP Leaders: "It's Time!"









"Hurry Up Please! It's Time!"
T.S. Eliot











Timothy Geithner on debt ceiling: 'We're running out of time'

During a visit to Capitol Hill on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner implored Congress to raise the debt ceiling and to send a “definitive signal” to the world that America will avoid default, warning that “we’re running out of time.”

“We’ve looked at all available options and we have no way to give Congress more time to solve this problem. We’re running out of time,” Geithner said at a news conference after meeting with Senate Democrats.

“The eyes of the country are on us. The eyes of the world are on us, and we need to make sure we stand together and send a definitive signal that we’re going to take the steps necessary to avoid default and also take advantage of this opportunity to make some progress in dealing with our long-term fiscal problems,” he added. “We don’t have much time; it’s time we move.”

Geithner made a brief presentation and fielded questions at a Democratic caucus lunch, walking senators through what would happen if Congress fails to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit by the Aug. 2 deadline.

The nation’s credit rating would be downgraded within days, the government would be restricted from borrowing money, and the Treasury would not be able to meet its financial obligations at the end of the month, causing some agencies and programs to lose funding, Geithner told senators.

There was also discussion of calling on former GOP treasury secretaries to explain the consequences of a default, said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who attended the meeting.

“This isn’t ginned up. This is real,” she said.

Geithner has warned that a failure to lift the debt ceiling would be “catastrophic” for the economy. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) lashed out against what he called a small group of Republican “ideologues” who are ignoring the secretary’s warnings and objecting to a debt hike.

“Secretary Geithner made one thing very clear: Aug. 2 is the deadline. There is no waffling from that. There’s no room to squeeze into another area – that’s it, Aug. 2. …” said Reid, with Geithner at his side. “There is no wiggle room.”

To illustrate his point, Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois recounted memories of taking his children into a store and looking for the sign reading: “You break it, you own it.”

“My message to the Republicans who are stopping us from extending the debt ceiling is: If they bring this economy down, they’ve broken it and they own it,” said Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “America can’t stand for that kind of political strategy.”


Sources: AP, Politico, USA Today, Youtube

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