Yellen lends support for effort to remove the debt ceiling altogether
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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen attends the House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, September 30, 2021.
Al Drago | Pool | Reuters
With a potential default looming for the U.S. in October, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday she would just as soon see the power over debt limits taken away from Congress.
Yellen indicated that she would support a bill to repeal the nation’s debt ceiling.
She pointed out that Congress is responsible for spending and tax decisions and must be able to meet those obligations.
In response to a question by Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill), she stated that “if to finance these spending and tax decisions it’s necessary for us to issue additional debt”
The remarks were made during a hearing before the House financial services committee on Treasury and the Federal Reserve’s economic response to the Covid pandemic.
Casten claimed that he was questioning Yellen regarding the idea of removing debt ceiling, and not about specific bill introduced by Rep. Bill Foster (an Illinois Democrat) along with a trio Democratic senators.
Yellen this week warned that extraordinary measures her department is using to keep funding the government’s operations expire Oct. 18.
She stated earlier in the hearing that Congress must raise the spending limit to avoid dire consequences.
She said, “I believe it would be disastrous for the economy as well as for individuals’ families.”
The U.S. is currently in $28.4 Trillion of debt. Nearly $700 Billion has been incurred by the country since President Joe Biden chose Yellen to lead Treasury. In the first 10 months, the deficit in the federal budget was 2.71 trillion.
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