Treasury Secretary Lew: U.S. poised to Default

Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said Congress needs to pass a debt-ceiling increase by Oct. 17 or the U.S. will be “dangerously low” on cash and risk defaulting on its payments.

“On the 17th, we run out of our ability to borrow, and Congress is playing with fire,” Lew said on CNN’s “State of the Union” today. “If they don’t extend the debt limit, we have a very, very short window of time before those scenarios start to be played out.”

“If the United States government, for the first time in its history, chooses not to pay its bills on time, we will be in default,” Lew said. “There is no option that prevents us from being in default if we don’t have enough cash to pay our bills.”

Bloomberg

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