Lew warns of dangers if borrowing limit not raised

[October 07, 2013]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says it will be "dangerous" and "reckless" for Congress to pass an October deadline without raising the government's borrowing limit.

Lew said Sunday that on Oct. 17 the government will lose the capacity to borrow because he will have exhausted all the extraordinary measures he has been using since May to free up room for more borrowing. He said the government has never before lost its borrowing ability.

In a CNN interview, Lew said that the government will have about $30 billion of cash on hand, but he said this was not a "responsible amount of cash to run the government on."

He called on Congress to raise the $16.7 trillion borrowing limit before the deadline to avoid damage to the government's credit standing.

[Associated Press; By MARTIN CRUTSINGER]

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