White House economic adviser Brian Deese on Friday said he was confident that the United States would address the nation's debt ceiling and urged Congress to address the issue without drama as an October deadline looms.
"We're confident that this is going to get done. It's absolutely unspeakable, unthinkable that we would allow the federal government to default on the obligations it has already made," the National Economic Council director told MSNBC in an interview.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned U.S. lawmakers that the country risks a new financial crisis and a default on its payment obligations if it does not raise the $28.5 trillion federal borrowing limit.
For months, Yellen has urged Congress to act, saying cash and "extraordinary measures" being used to temporarily finance the U.S. government will run out in October.
But Republicans, who lost control of the White House in the 2020 election and do not hold the majority in the Senate or the House of Representatives, have balked and placed the potential crisis on Democrats' shoulders.
"We have seen this done in a bipartisan way consistently and the best way to do this is without a lot of drama, without a lot of self-inflicted harm to the economy and to our country, and that's what we're going to do," Deese said.
"There's a lot of posturing on this issue, but we're confident at the end of the day we'll get this done."