Kenneth Chenault Quotes

If we hit the debt ceiling, that's... essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history. The impact on the economy would be catastrophic.

The American people were really not 100% convinced that this idea of default was really going to occur, and I think the media, current company excepted here, did not help in that regard because they confused the American people about what default actually meant.

The tenor of the comments as we got closer and closer to August got dominated by 'Wouldja please get this over with' and not let us go into default.

Defaulting on our [national] debt is defaulting on America.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have left us with $19 trillion in debt.

There is a belief, at least on the part of the American people, that they can borrow money forever without consequence.

The United States has never prioritized or failed to pay any obligation when due during a debt limit impasse. Despite the institutional risks and the lack of clear legal authority, we assume that Treasury will attempt to prioritize payments in a last-ditch effort to avoid default.

Fiscal crises often turn into financial crises, dealing a blow to the real economy.

Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people.

Our nation suffers when Congress fails to pay America's bills on time.

I think at the end of the day we have to raise the debt ceiling, because America pays its bills.

I don't know of any of us that want to see any kind of default happen.

Nobody wants to put the creditworthiness of the United States in jeopardy. Nobody wants to see the United States default. So we've got to seize this moment, and we have to seize it soon.

The debt ceiling at some point has to be raised. I don't think there's anybody that questions the fact that if we ended up getting in a situation where the U.S. government was sending out IOUs like the state of California did at one point, that ends up creating quite a brand problem for our country.

I think we ought to all take a step back and remember where we were 24, 48 hours ago, a week ago, two weeks ago - the prospect that was hanging out there that America would not honor its obligations for the first time in its history, and the impact that would have on our economy and the global economy.

I do not want America to default on its debt.

I certainly don't want our nation to go into default, but at the same time, I'm very concerned about our ongoing debt problem.

The single biggest threat to our national security is our debt.

There is absolutely no way that the U.S. will ever default on its debt. We are not going to do that.

Not raising the debt ceiling is not an automatic trigger for a default.

To the extent that bank panics interfere with normal flows of credit, they may affect the performance of the real economy.

Here's the perversity of Wall Street's psychology: The more Wall Street is convinced that Washington will act rationally and raise the debt ceiling, most likely at the 11th hour, the less pressure there will be on lawmakers to reach an agreement. That will make it more likely a deal isn't reached.

I know that my Republican colleagues are as ashamed as I am that the United States is forced to borrow over $1 trillion from foreign nations to pay for our national priorities like reconstruction of the gulf coast and the war in Iraq.

I think it's important that people know what raising the debt ceiling is. It's Congress giving permission to the federal government to borrow more money that we don't have, and we borrow it for the purpose of spending it.

Ron Paul's crazy talk about the Federal Reserve makes more sense these days. Right now, every - all this debt issued by the United States people assume the Chinese are buying, no they don't want any more American debt. Ron Paul has a point there.