Austan Goolsbee: Not Raising The Debt Ceiling Would Be “Catastrophic” And “Insanity”

Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, stopped by This Week and told substitute host Jake Tapper that the “impact on the economy would be catastrophic” if Congress failed to raise the debt ceiling. Furthermore, despite the wishes of the Tea Party or newly elected Republicans, this issue of raising the limit is “not a game.”

Goolsbee continued:

I don’t see why anybody’s talking about playing chicken with the debt ceiling. If we get to the point where you’ve damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity. . . . The United States is not in danger of default. We do not have problems such as that. This would be lumping us in with a series of countries through history that I don’t think we would want to be lumped in with.

Wonder if Representatives Bachmann and Kelly, who just this morning expressed doubts about raising the ceiling, were listening?

Watch the clip from ABC below:

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