DIANE SAWYER (ABC NEWS)(OC): 이번에는 연방 정부의 빚이 오늘 거의 채무 한도에 도달했다는 소식입니다. 연방 정부의 부채가 14조 달러를 넘었습니다. 현재 보시는 영상은 ‘나라 부채 시계’인데요. 시간처럼 빚도 (사람을) 기다려주지 않습니다. 그래서 출구 전략을 모색하기 위한 노력이 물론 시작되었습니다. 그리고 이번 소식이 미국이 빚
더미에서 허덕이고 있다는 최근 증거입니다. 상황이 얼마나 심각한 지 그리고 어쩌다 이 지경이 되었는지, 다음은 어떻게 될 지 제이크 탭퍼가 보도합니다.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): 가족 누군가가 신용 카드를 한도까지 써버린 상황을 상상해 보시죠.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): 현 연방 정부가 오늘 바로 그런 상황인데, 부채 한도액인 14조2천9백억 달러에 도달했습니다. 하지만 그런 한도 상황에서 여러분이나 제가 어쩔 수 없이 취하게 될 방법과는 달리, 연방 정부는 신용 한도를 아무렇지도 않게 스스로 높이고 있습니다. 의회가 이런 조치를 취한 것이 1940년 이래 100번이 넘습니다.
SPOKESPERSON (UNITED STATES CONGRESS): 결의안이 통과되었습니다.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): 하지만 올해는 아닙니다. 그래서 재무부는 몇 개월 동안 운신의 여지를 스스로 만들었습니다.
TIMOTHY GEITHNER (TREASURY SECRETARY): 의회가 아직 한도를 높이는 조치를 취하지 않았기 때문에 의회가 부채 한도를 높일 수 있도록 시간을 좀 더 주기 위해서 일련의 특별 조치들을 가동했습니다.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS): (VO) 이 조치들에는 정부 특별 기금에서 수십억 달러를 임시 편성하거나 빌리는 방식을 포함합니다. 이제 일부 보수주의자들은 토지와 건물 같은 정부 자산을 매각하는 식의 ‘마당 세일’과 같은 극단적인 조치들까지 거론하고 있습니다.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): 혹은 심지어 2억6천5백만 온스의, 주로 Fort Knox에 소재한 금도 매각 대상인데, 재무부가 보유하고 있는 이 금의 가치는 현재 가격으로 거의 4억 달러에 상당합니다.
DIANE SAWYER (ABC NEWS)(OC): And now the US government's appetite for borrowing hit a mind-boggling level today.
More than $14 trillion in the hole. You're looking at the national debt clock. And debt, like time, waits for no man. The scrambling to find a way out has begun of course. And it's the latest alarming evidence, that evidence today that America is drowning in debt. Jake Tapper on how bad and how it got this way, what happens next.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): Imagine that your family has maxed out its credit cards.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): That's exactly what the US government did today, reaching its debt limit, $14.29 trillion. But unlike the way you or I would be forced to deal with hitting such a limit, the US government routinely raises its own credit limit. Congress has done this more than 100 times since 1940.
SPOKESPERSON (UNITED STATES CONGRESS): The resolution is passed.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): But not this year. So the Treasury Department has created some wiggle room for a few months.
TIMOTHY GEITHNER (TREASURY SECRETARY): Because Congress has not yet acted to raise the limit, we have now set in motion a series of extraordinary measures that will give Congress some additional time to raise the debt limit.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS): (VO) Those measures include tinkering with or borrowing billions from special government funds. Now some conservatives are talking about extreme measures almost like a yard sale, such as selling off government assets like land, buildings.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): Or even the 261.5 million ounces of gold, mostly in Fort Knox, that the Treasury Department owns, valued today at almost $400 billion.
DIANE SAWYER (ABC NEWS)(OC): And now the US government's appetite for borrowing hit a mind-boggling level today.
More than $14 trillion in the hole. You're looking at the national debt clock. And debt, like time, waits for no man. The scrambling to find a way out has begun of course. And it's the latest alarming evidence, that evidence today that America is drowning in debt. Jake Tapper on how bad and how it got this way, what happens next.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): Imagine that your family has maxed out its credit cards.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): That's exactly what the US government did today, reaching its debt limit, $14.29 trillion. But unlike the way you or I would be forced to deal with hitting such a limit, the US government routinely raises its own credit limit. Congress has done this more than 100 times since 1940.
SPOKESPERSON (UNITED STATES CONGRESS): The resolution is passed.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): But not this year. So the Treasury Department has created some wiggle room for a few months.
TIMOTHY GEITHNER (TREASURY SECRETARY): Because Congress has not yet acted to raise the limit, we have now set in motion a series of extraordinary measures that will give Congress some additional time to raise the debt limit.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS): (VO) Those measures include tinkering with or borrowing billions from special government funds. Now some conservatives are talking about extreme measures almost like a yard sale, such as selling off government assets like land, buildings.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): Or even the 261.5 million ounces of gold, mostly in Fort Knox, that the Treasury Department owns, valued today at almost $400 billion.
KEVIN HASSETT (ECONOMIST AT AEI): Selling America's gold is probably not such a bad idea. There aren't really very many good reasons for the government to hold a stockpile of gold.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(VO): But that would only buy us about three months before we'd be right back in the same situation. And Republicans in Congress are refusing to raise the debt ceiling without slashing spending.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (REP) (SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE): Raise the debt ceiling without dealing with the underlying problems is totally irresponsible.
JAKE TAPPER (ABC NEWS)(OC): And Diane, economists warn that if the US even came close to defaulting on its debt, interest rates would skyrocket, the stock market would plummet, as would the gross domestic product and there would be immediate layoffs. Diane?