White House's Sperling: 'Era of Threatening Default Is Over'

• White House's Sperling: 'Era of Threatening Default Is Over'

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  • Jeffrey Sparshott
  • CONNECT

  White House adviser Gene Sperling on Monday said the Obama administration won’t allow House Republicans to use the threat of breaching the debt ceiling as leverage in budget negotiations.
  “The only way for us to go forward is to all make clear that the era of threatening default is over,” Mr. Sperling,  director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said at a breakfast organized by Politico.
  The White House and Congress are deadlocked in talks over the budget, which has led to a partial government shutdown, and the looming Oct. 17 debt ceiling deadline.
  

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  House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) said Sunday he wouldn’t bring up bills to fully reopen the government or increase the country’s borrowing limit unless Democrats agree to broader talks aimed at trimming the deficit. “The votes are not in the House to pass a clean debt limit, and the president is risking default by not having a conversation with us,” Mr. Boehner told ABC.
  Mr. Sperling and Jason Furman, chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, said moving the country toward default could lead to dire consequences.
  “It’s irresponsible to even get to the 17th without having acted. But then you don’t fall off a cliff instantly. We’ve never actually tested it . We don’t know. We don’t ever want to find out [what happens], Mr. Furman said.
  When asked if a two-week extension would be acceptable, Mr. Sperling said that such a decision is up to Congress though a longer-term solution is preferable. A longer-term extension creates more economic certainty, he said.
  

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