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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned on ABC's "This Week" that Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans are playing with "catastrophe" over a pending fight to raise the debt ceiling.
While the Senate reached a deal on Thursday for an emergency hike of the debt ceiling by $480 billion to pay the nation's bills through Dec. 3, McConnell has warned of a battle brewing over raising it further.
Pressed by "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos about what would happen if McConnell keeps his word that Republicans won't help the Democrats next time, Yellen painted a picture with drastic consequences.
"Fifty million Americans wouldn't receive Social Security payments. Our troops won't know when or if they would be paid. The 30 million families that receive a child tax credit, those payments would be in jeopardy," Yellen said.
She said such a scenario "could result in catastrophe."
While no Republicans voted on Thursday to raise the debt ceiling, 11 voted with Democrats to break a Republican filibuster so the measure to raise the debt ceiling could advance./GMA