Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner spoke out against lawmakers like Michele Bachmann who have claimed the administration is using scare tactics to over-hype the debt crisis.
"On Aug. 2., we’re left running on fumes," Geithner told host Bob Schieffer. "We have no capacity to borrow... We have to act; Congress has to act ahead of that point. If they don’t act, then we face catastrophic damage to the American economy."
Geithner expressed confidence that a deal would be reached ahead of the Aug. 2. deadline, but noted that whether or not the deal would be good for the economy was a different matter. He told Schieffer that the Obama administration faced a difficult task in trying to broker the "biggest deal possible."
Watch Geithner's appearance below, via CBS:
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