Obama wants longer-term debt ceiling deal, White House says

English>>World

Editor's Pick

Obama wants longer-term debt ceiling deal, White House says

(Xinhua) 08:05, October 12, 2013

Email|Print|Comments

twitter

facebook

Sina Microblog

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 -- U.S. President Barack Obama thinks that the government's borrowing authority should be raised for longer than six weeks to remove uncertainty for the economy, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Friday.

A short-term debt ceiling deal would put the United States in the same situation like the current fiscal impasse, Carney said at the daily briefing.

Before a White House meeting with Obama on Thursday, U.S. House Republicans floated an idea of a six-week debt ceiling increase to avert a debt default crisis.

"The President appreciates the constructive nature of the conversation and of the proposal that House Republicans put forward. He has some concerns with it," Carney said.

As the first government shutdown in 17 years drags on into its eleventh day, Washington faces another fiscal deadline. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has told Congress the federal government will reach its debt ceiling of 16.7 trillion U.S. dollars by Oct. 17, and that failure to raise it would lead to a catastrophic default.

"A proposal that puts a debt ceiling increase at only six weeks tied to budget negotiations would put us right back where we are today in just six weeks, on the verge of Thanksgiving and the obviously important shopping season leading up to the holidays," he said.

"It is his position that the right thing to do is to remove that gun from the table, extend the debt ceiling in a way that ensures that there is no suggestion or hint that default is an option, because our economy can't endure that kind of approach to resolving our budget differences," he stressed.

Obama spoke by telephone with U.S. House Speaker John Boehner earlier Friday and both sides agreed to continue the fiscal talks, Carney said.

Both leaders "had a good conversation, and the two of them agreed that all sides need to keep talking on the issues here that are confronting us that have led to a shutdown of the government and to the situation that has put us on the precipice of potential default," he added.

（Editor：YaoChun、Zhang Qian）