US President Barack Obama said that failure to raise the debt ceiling would cause the United States to default on its bills, warning that such situation is "dramatically worse" than the current government shutdown.

US President Barack Obama said that failure to raise the debt ceiling would cause the United States to default on its bills, warning that such situation is "dramatically worse" than the current government shutdown.

"As soon as Congress votes to reopen the government, it's also got to vote to meet our country's commitments, pay our bills, raise the debt ceiling," Obama told a press conference.

"As reckless as a government shutdown is, the economic shutdown caused by America defaulting would be dramatically worse," he added.
Obama criticized rival Republican Party lawmakers for setting unrelated conditions before they would agree to pass a new budget and raise the debt ceiling.

Members of Congress "don't get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their jobs," he said.

The shutdown of non-essential federal government services was in its eighth day Tuesday, with hundreds of thousands of workers furloughed, or sent home without pay, after Congress failed to pass a budget for the 2014 fiscal year that began October 1.

Meanwhile the $16.7 trillion US borrowing ceiling needs to be raised by October 17, when the Treasury says it will run out of cash and lack the funds necessary to fund a chronic deficit of about $60 billion a month.

But Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner has warned that he will not allow Congress to raise the ceiling unless Obama offers concessions on his signature reform law that expanded health-care coverage.

Obama blasted that stance.
"We can't make extortion routine as part of our democracy. Democracy doesn't function this way. And this is not just for me. It's also for my successors in office, whatever party they're from," he said.