Treasury chief 'confident' Congress will raise U.S. debt limit

[June 02, 2017]  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday he was confident that Congress would raise the federal debt limit "before there's an issue" with U.S. creditworthiness, and he pledged that the Trump administration's tax reform plans would be paid for.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Washington, U.S., May 23, 2017. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

"We're going to get it increased," Mnuchin told Fox Business Network about the debt limit. "The credit of the United States is the utmost. I've said to Congress they should do it as quickly as they can. But we are very focused on working with them and I'm confident we'll get there before there's an issue."

Mnuchin said last week that he wanted a "clean" debt ceiling increase before the start of Congress' summer recess in early August.

Mnuchin said that it "makes no sense" to view the Trump administration's tax reform plans through a "static" budget analysis that does not account for economic growth effects. He has previously pledged that increased economic growth would generate more revenue to offset lower tax rates.

"We're about creating economic growth, we're about broadening the base and we're going to make sure that this is tax reform, not just tax cuts, and that they're paid for," Mnuchin said.

(Reporting by David Lawder; editing by Leslie Adler and Diane Craft)

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