Debt Ceiling Is Like a Nuclear Weapon: Steve Forbes
It’s Groundhog Day in Washington: lawmakers are once again discussing the rapidly approaching debt ceiling.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew hit the Sunday morning talk show circuit to reinforce President Obama’s message that the U.S. would raise its $16.7 trillion debt limit.
"Congress shouldn't wait until the last minute," Lew told CNN. "They should just raise the debt limit and take away any cloud of uncertainty about the ability of the United States to pay its bills."
Related: Debt Ceiling Deadline Delayed: Good News and Bad
It's expected that Republicans in Congress will use the Sept. 30 debt ceiling deadline to rally for spending and budget cuts.
“Washington has to stop playing these brinksmanship games,” said Lew. “It’s not about who wins and who loses.”
Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media and a former Republican presidential candidate, agrees with Lew.
“I hope Republicans realize that debt ceilings are like nuclear weapons -- you don’t want to have to use them,” he tells The Daily Ticker in the attached video.
“In the name of statesmanship we should give the president back impoundment powers,” continues Forbes. “We should give the president powers to impound spending so that we don’t have a future budget crisis.”
Related: Your Debt, Not the Government's, is Hurting the Economy: Robert Kuttner
As for the sequester, Forbes argues that politicians have to do something: "It was very harmful,” he says.
In a Politico piece today, reporters Manu Raju and John Bresnahan posit that a grand bargain on a fiscal deal may be out of reach for Congress. We shall see...
Watch the video above to see what Forbes thinks about Obama’s healthcare mandate and immigration reform.
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