Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has been sounding the alarm on Sunday's political talk shows, warning that "Congress is playing with fire" if it doesn't raise the debt ceiling by Oct. 17. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, however, doesn't seem as concerned over the potential default, saying on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he is more worried about the "gradual bankruptcy that is occurring in this country."
Guest host Savannah Guthrie asked Paul if the Republican-orchestrated shutdown was counterproductive, bringing more attention to the government than any glitches in Obamacare, which House Republicans had hoped to defund or delay.
Paul answered, "I'm worried about the overall financial picture of the country, and so whether or not it was a good strategic idea, I don't know, but when are we supposed to stand up and say, 'Look, we're out of money and we're destroying this country by this burden of debt.'"
He continued: "I think you've got to stand up, whether it's the debt ceiling or whether it's continuing resolution, we have to talk about the big picture, and the big picture is not an immediate default, the big picture is this gradual bankruptcy that's occurring in this country."
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