Tumultuous weeks of government shutdown and default risks proved to be costly to the U.S. economy, but the country will be resilient enough to withstand the blow, said U.S. Treasury Secretary on Sunday.
"We learned in 2011 that when you get close to the edge, it does do some damage. But we have a resilient economy. I am confident that our economy can recover," said Jacob Lew in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press".
"We did see our borrowing costs go up in the short term. We know that from the shutdown there was a loss of economic activity, " Lew said. "We need to make sure the government does not go through another round of brinkmanship. This can never happen again. "
Lew blamed some House Republicans for the stalemate that resulted in the partial government shutdown and default threat, saying "there was a faction, particularly in the House, who took control of some of the direction of this debate."
He also noted that the deep spending cuts that are part of sequestration are holding back the economy. "The President has made clear that we think you should replace some of the sequestration cuts with sensible, balanced entitlement and tax reforms to put us in the right direction for the future."
The Treasury Secretary added that fiscal policy would not be the only focus of Obama administration as "there is a lot that we need to do to build and grow this economy," listing infrastructure, immigration reform and farm bill as priorities.
Asked about the bumpy rollout of Obama's signature health care reform, Lew said the administration will fix technical glitches in the online health care insurance exchanges, the heart of the Obamacare project, which were launched on October 1.
House Republicans had predicted for months that Obamacare would be a "train wreck" with error-ridden online exchanges and defective design.
Lew said the real test for the insurance exchanges would come in January when the actual coverage starts for people who have enrolled by Dec. 15.
"The test is: are people getting coverage and are they getting the care that they need," said Lew. "We're confident we're going to be on track to do that."
相关新闻：美国财政部长雅各布?卢20日说，过去几周的财政僵局毫无疑问有经济代价，但美国经济有足够弹性从中恢复。
卢在美国全国广播公司当天播出的访谈节目中说，过去几周经历的动荡更多是政治危机，而非经济危机。财政僵局对经济产生了冲击，但他相信美国经济有足够弹性恢复。
卢说，财政僵局带来的债务违约风险导致美国短期国债利率上升，政府非核心部门关门也造成了经济活动损失，这些影响目前难以量化，人们将关注未来一段时间的经济数据，但重要的是两党要避免上演新一轮政治边缘主义，类似僵局不应再发生。
卢还谈到，今年3月份开始执行的自动减赤机制中的部分内容应该由更加合理和平衡的税收和福利项目改革措施来取代，以减轻政府削减开支对经济的抑制作用。
在经历了几周的僵持后，美国国会终于在16日晚达成协议，结束联邦政府非核心部门持续16天关门的局面，并将财政部发行国债的权限延长至明年2月初。分析人士认为，这样的短期方案消除了近忧但难解远虑，财政政策前景的不确定性将继续影响美国经济表现。
根据标准普尔近日发布的报告，此次政府非核心部门关门至少将造成240亿美元经济损失。标准普尔还把美国经济第四季度按年率计算的增长率从上月预测的3%下调至约2%。(新华网)
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