Barack Obama

“ Then we can declare an end to governing by crisis and govern responsibly, by putting our focus back where it should always be – on creating new jobs, growing our economy, and expanding opportunity not just for ourselves, but for future generations. ”

“ We are a compassionate nation. We are the world’s bedrock investment. And doing anything to threaten that is the height of irresponsibility. That’s why I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States. I will not allow anyone to harm this country’s reputation, or threaten to inflict economic pain on millions of our own people, just to make an ideological point.
So, we are running out of time to fix this. But we could fix it tomorrow. Both houses of Congress can take a simple vote to pay our bills on time, then work together to pass a budget on time. ”

“ Congress must authorize the Treasury to pay America’s bills. This is done with a simple, usually routine vote to raise what’s called the debt ceiling. Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every President has signed it – Democrats and Republicans, including President Reagan. And if this Congress doesn’t do it within the next few weeks, the United States will default on its obligations and put our entire economy at risk.
This is important: raising the debt ceiling is not the same as approving more spending. It lets us pay for what Congress already spent. ”