Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner on Sunday predicted that Republicans and Democrats will reach a deal on raising the country’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.
“I want to make it perfectly clear that Congress will raise the debt ceiling,” Mr. Geithner said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.” “They told the president that on Wednesday in the White House.”
Fiscal conservatives in Congress have said they will oppose raising the debt ceiling unless Democrats make major concessions on reining in long-term deficit spending.
Mr. Geithner has been warning Republicans that a failure to approve the debt-ceiling increase would be a disaster for the global economy.
“We want Congress to put in place a comprehensive framework, a balanced framework, that can reduce our long-term deficits. And we’re going to work hard to do that,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Mr. Geithner and other Democrats who appeared on the Sunday talk shows, including Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York, signaled that Democrats were willing to compromise with Republicans on a long-term plan to reduce federal deficit spending.
But the Treasury secretary said the debt-limit vote should not be held hostage.
“If, by the time we need to raise the debt limit, we haven’t worked all that out, Congress still has to raise the debt limit,” Mr. Geithner said. “Leadership recognizes that.”
• David Eldridge can be reached at deldridge@washingtontimes.com.
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