U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Jan. 10, 2023 in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The U.S. government risks “economic and financial catastrophe” if the House fails to pass a bill to boost the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday.
The nation hit the statutory limit last month, but Republican members of Congress are holding out on raising it to barter changes in federal spending rules with the White House before drafting a bill. The Treasury Department under Yellen has taken several temporary measures to assist the federal government avoid default.
“America has paid all of its bills on time since 1789, and never to achieve this would produce an economic and financial catastrophe,” Yellen told ABC’s George Stephanopolous on Monday. “And each responsible member of Congress must conform to raise the debt ceiling.”
The Treasury Secretary said the House has at all times fulfilled its duty to boost the limit though it has sometimes “gone as much as the wire.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that he’ll deliver an address on the debt ceiling Monday at 5:30 p.m. ET. Talks between McCarthy and President Joe Biden have continued amicably, but an agreement has not been reached.
In the course of the interview, Yellen also praised the better-than-expected January job numbers and steadily decreasing inflation, each issues she said Biden will address in his State of the Union speech Tuesday.
“Last month, we created over 500,000 jobs, greater than 12 million because the president took office, and inflation is coming down,” she said. “It stays too high, nevertheless it’s been falling for the last six months.”
