财政部长珍妮特·耶伦周二表示，如果国会不在截止日期前提高债务上限，那将是一场“灾难”
耶伦与美联储主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔一起在参议院银行、住房和城市事务委员会作证时表示，美国最早可能在10月18日达到债务上限，时间不到三周。
她说:“这将是我们强加给这个国家的人为危机，这个国家正在经历一个非常困难的时期，并且正在复苏的道路上。“这将是一个巨大的自我伤害。”
美国从未拖欠债务。自1960年以来，国会已经投票80次提高或暂停债务限额。
耶伦此前已经向议员们阐述了错过最后期限的后果。她曾表示，近5000万老年人可能会暂时停止领取社会保障金，军队可能会被拖欠工资，数百万每月领取儿童税收抵免的家庭可能会遭遇延误。违约还可能引发利率飙升，导致股价大幅下跌和其他金融动荡，将当前的经济复苏逆转为衰退，数十亿美元的增长和数百万个工作岗位流失。
耶伦周二再次描绘了一幅严峻的画面。
耶伦说，即使国会提高了债务限额，但离最后期限太近，也可能会造成经济后果。
“此外，我们从以前的债务限额僵局中知道，等到最后一刻可能会对企业和消费者信心造成严重伤害，提高纳税人的借贷成本，并在未来几年对美国的信用评级产生负面影响。未能迅速采取行动也可能导致金融市场的大幅混乱，因为不确定性的加剧可能加剧波动，削弱投资者信心，”耶伦在给国会领导层的一封信中概述道。
耶伦还重申，提高债务上限与未来的政府支出无关——一些共和党人试图将这一点作为不支持提高债务上限的理由，因为国会民主党人正争先恐后地试图通过一项两党基础设施法案和一项更大的社会支出计划。
“我希望看到债务上限提高。我认为不这样做将是灾难性的。但我同样认为，民主党和共和党政府都有赤字，认识到这一点很重要，这意味着为这些赤字买单是一项共同的责任，”耶伦作证说。
Treasury secretary warns of 'calamity' if Congress doesn't raise debt limit
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling by the deadline it would be a "calamity."
Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs alongside Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Yellen said the U.S. could hit its debt limit in less than three weeks, as early as Oct. 18.
"This would be a manufactured crisis we had imposed on this country, which has been going through a very difficult period and is on the road to recovery," she said. "This would be a self-inflicted wound of enormous proportions."
The United States has never defaulted on its debt. Congress has voted 80 times to raise or suspend the debt limit since 1960.
Yellen has previously laid out the consequences to lawmakers of missing the deadline. She has said nearly 50 million seniors could temporarily stop receiving Social Security payments, troops could go unpaid and millions of families who receive the monthly child tax credit could experience delays. A default could also trigger a spike in interest rates and result in a steep drop in stock prices and other financial turmoil, reversing the current economic recovery into a recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.
Yellen painted a grim picture again Tuesday.
Even if Congress increases the debt limit but does so too close to the deadline, it could cause economic fallout, Yellen said.
"Furthermore, we know from previous debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise borrowing costs for taxpayers and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States for years to come. Failure to act promptly could also result in substantial disruptions to financial markets, as heightened uncertainty can exacerbate volatility and erode investor confidence," Yellen outlined in a letter to congressional leadership.
Yellen also reiterated that raising the debt limit has nothing to do with future government spending -- a point some Republicans have tried to push as reason for not supporting a debt-limit hike as Democrats on the Hill scramble to try to pass both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a larger social spending package.
"I want to see that the debt ceiling is raised. I believe that it would be catastrophic not to do so. But I equally believe that deficits have been under both Democratic and Republican administrations, it’s important to recognize that, and that means paying the bills for those deficits is a shared responsibility," Yellen testified.
