Geithner: GOP Will Raise Debt Ceiling

The Hill reports:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner boldly predicted that Congress will vote to raise the debt ceiling next month, warning that failure to do so would bring "catastrophic" consequences for the U.S. and global economies.

Geithner, appearing on ABC's "This Week," said that if House Republicans were to push the vote to the brink or fail to raise the limit, it would "make the last [financial] crisis look like a tame, modest crisis."

Geithner said that Republicans have told President Obama they "recognize we have to do this, and we're not going to play around with it."

"There's no alternative, and they recognize that," Geithner said.

Geithner said the Republican leadership assured Obama in a meeting at the White House on Wednesday that they understand the gravity of the debt ceiling vote and that they will vote to raise it.

"The responsible people up there understand that," Geithner said.

But Republicans appearing on the Sunday talk shows demonstrated how tough a fight the White House might be facing just weeks after a near-shutdown of the government spurred by debates over fiscal 2011 spending.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on CBS's "Face the Nation' that he has not been informed of any communication from House GOP leaders that they will back a raising of the debt ceiling no matter what.

Ryan said that, as he understands it, GOP leaders have told the White House: “In addition to raising the debt limit, we want financial controls, we want cuts in spending accompanying the raising of the debt ceiling.”

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate Gang of Six negotiations, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, (D-Md.), newly named to the Biden budget talks by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), previewed the battle to come with Coburn making clear that he and other Republicans will not vote to raise the debt ceiling without an agreement on cuts.

Coburn made plain that he will not accept an increase in the nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit in the coming weeks without agreement on a debt reduction package.