White House economist Heather Boushey on Tuesday warned Republicans against "playing games" with the U.S. economy through the debt ceiling debate at a time when interest rate hikes were having a negative impact on the banking sector.
"The economy remains, it's been strong. You don't want to be pushing it off of the course that it's on," Boushey told Reuters. "The Fed is raising interest rates in the hope of reducing inflation. That is having this negative effect on the banking sector. Why would we add to that?"
Boushey said Congress has the power to take the risk of default off the table by raising the debt ceiling, while the broader issue of interest rates and their impact on bank assets was a far more complicated question that no single entity had the power to solve.
