Geithner Says Republicans Have Already Promised to Increase the Debt Ceiling

This morning on ABC’s “This Week”Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says he is certain that Congress will raise the debt ceiling. Geithner stated that Republicans have said that the GOP said this to the president on Wednesday … ”I sat there with them, and they said, we recognize we have to do this. And we’re not going to play around with it.”

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says he is certain that Congress will raise the debt ceiling, saying leaders are “not going to play around with it” and risk the “catastrophic” consequences of defaulting on the nation’s debt obligations.

“I want to make it perfectly clear that Congress will raise the debt ceiling,” Geithner said in an interview with ABC News “This Week” anchor Christiane Amanpour. When asked if he was sure, Geithner responded, “absolutely,” adding that Congressional leaders made clear they understood the importance of the matter when meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House last Wednesday.

“I sat there with them, and they said, we recognize we have to do this. And we’re not going to play around with it,” Geithner said of last week’s White House meeting. “We know that the risk would be catastrophic.”

However, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said onCBS’s “Face the Nation’ that he has not been informed of any such communication or promise from from House GOP leaders to the White House that they will back a raising of the debt ceiling. In Ryan’s words, there will be no rubber stamp for the debt ceiling being raised.

Congressman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said on Sunday that House Republicans did not want to see the country default on its loans when it hits the debt limit in May, but emphasized they would not agree to “rubber stamp” an increase on the debt ceiling without significant concessions.

Ryan, the chair of the House Budget Committee, also disputed a recent statement by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner implying that the Republican leadership had already agreed to approve such an increase under the justification that “We know that the risk [of not approving it] would be catastrophic.”

Ok, so who is lying or is it like what Weasel Zippers surmises, is Boehner up to his crying games?