Obama: ‘You Don’t Mess with the Debt Limit ... We’re Not Going to Negotiate on That’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

REPORTER: "Thank you, Mr. President. To go back to your opening remarks, you said that you won't sign another four-term cr. But yesterday secretary Lew announced the government's borrowing authority would run out around November 5th. Would you recommend negotiating an increase in the debt ceiling as part of these budget negotiations on spending caps? And also, does the speaker's race complicate these negotiations?" 
OBAMA: "I'm sure the speaker's race complicates these negotiations. That was a rhetorical question. It will complicate the negotiations, but when it comes to the debt ceiling we're not going back there. Maybe it's been a while so let me just refresh everybody's memory. Raising the debt ceiling does not authorize us to spend more. It simply authorizes us to pay the bills that we have already incured. It is the way for the united States to maintain its good credit rating. The full faith and credit of the United States. Historically we do not mess with it. If it gets messed with, it would have profound implications for the global economy and could put our financial system in the kind of tailspin that we saw back in 2007-2008. It's just a bad thing to do. So we're not going to negotiate on that. It has to get done in the next five weeks. So even though the continuing resolution to keep the government open last for ten weeks we have to get the debt ceiling raised in five."