CLEVELAND (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday that both she and President Joe Biden agree that the federal debt ceiling should not be held hostage by Congress and a default on U.S. debt would be “calamitous.”
Yellen, asked in a CNN interview in Cleveland about threats by some Republicans to use the next debt ceiling deadline as leverage for concessions from Biden if they win control of Congress in Nov. 8 elections, said a U.S. debt default “simply cannot be contemplated.”
“The president and I agree that America should not be held hostage by members of Congress who think it’s alright to compromise the credit rating of the United States and to threaten default on U.S. Treasuries, which are the bedrock of global financial markets,” Yellen told CNN. “Defaulting on our debt…would be simply calamitous for the U.S.”
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Sam Holmes)