By Denny Gulino
WASHINGTON (MNI) – Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Tuesday said he
and the other top negotiators need to wrap up the “broad outlines” of a
debt-limit agreement by the end of next week.
Speaking to a “Women in Finance” symposium at Department
headquarters, Geithner said, “It’s very important for investors here in
the United States to understand and to recognize the U.S. will act in
advance of the limit we face, where our borrowing runs out on August 2.”
He continued, “We are working very hard and could use some support
in raising the odds of doing a long-term substantial deficit reduction
agreement that will be good for the economy in the long term.” President
Obama will continue, he said, “to work towards the largest possible
agreement because that’s what’s best for the economy.”
“I think the leaders understand we don’t have a lot of time and we
want to wrap up the broad outlines of an agreement by the end of this
week, certainly by the end of next week, so that we have time to
legislate it and put it in place,” Geithner said.
The negotiators meet again in the afternoon and President Obama “is
going to keep meeting with them until we work this out,” he said.
“Congress, of course, is going to pass an increase in the debt
limit in time for us to avoid default,” he said. “We’re a country that
pays its bills and I very much appreciate the statements by the
leadership, not just Democrats but Republican leadership, that they
recognize default is not an option, failure’s not an option.”
Geithner repeated what he said in a blitz of the major public
affairs programs Sunday, that, “This is going to require some very
difficult political choices for Democrats and Republicans.”
President Obama “has put on the table things that are very hard for
Democrats to accept. He’s taking a lot of political heat for doing that
and he’s going to stay in that position. But, Geithner added, “it won’t
work unless you see a similar spirit of compromise from Republicans.”
“It is unfair and untenable to ask middle class Americans and the
elderly to bear all of the burden for the fiscal reforms we are going to
need to get our arms around this long-term problem,” he said.
Geithner said, “It’s a consequential time in the world economy” and
the U.S. “has a lot of challenges ahead as a country. Unemployment is
still very high.”
Even with the growth of the past 18 months, he said, “all of those
challenges will be harder to address if we can’t find a way to come
together as a country and put in place a balanced, comprehensive,
long-term fiscal agreement.”
While that’s not the only challenge the country faces, he said,
without a fiscal agreement “we’ll be less able to deal with many other
challenges we face.”
** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **
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