The United States Congress needs to raise the debt limit and take away the "cloud of uncertainty" about the nation's ability to pay its bills, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in an interview broadcast yesterday.
"The fight over the debt limit in 2011 hurt the economy, even though, in theend, we saw an extension of the debt limit. We saw confidence fall, and it hurt the economy. Congress needs to do its job. It needs to finish its work on appropriation bills. It needs to pass a debt limit," Lew said on NBC television's Meet the Press.
Senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill are trying to come up with must-do legislation to keep federal agencies running after September 30 in the US, and prevent the possibility of a government shutdown.
At issue is what is normally routine - a plug-the-gap measure to fund the Government for a few weeks or months until a deal can be worked out on appropriations bills giving agencies their operating budgets for the full 2014 fiscal year, which begins on October 1.
However, some Democrats do not want to vote to continue to fund the Government at new, lower levels mandated by the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration.
And some conservatives are making a last stand against President Barack Obama's new healthcare law. In addition, Senate Democrats are resistant to a US$20 billion ($24.7 billion) spending cut wanted by many Republicans.
The issue has divided Republicans between those who think it's appropriate to use the threat of a government shutdown as a negotiating tactic, and those who don't.
Representative Peter King of New York said Republicans should be searching for ways to de-fund or repeal Obama's healthcare act. But he called threatening to shut down the Government "terror politics" and said the strategy would not work.
