Congress 'needs to do its job' and reopen government

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Sunday that "Congress needs to do its job" and reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling limit. On Tuesday Lew warned that the debt ceiling must be increased by Oct. 17 or the Treasury will only have $30 billion on hand to pay its bills. In an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," Lew said that while that sounds like a lot of money, it's only a fraction of what the United States spends on a daily basis. "When you think about the cash flow of the government of the United States, we have individual days when our negative or positive cash flow is $50 or $60 billion," he said. "So, $30 billion is not a responsible amount of cash to run the government on." He warned that should Congress not raise the debt ceiling, the United States may default on its debts, putting Social Security, disability and veterans payments at risk. "If they don't extend the debt limit, we have a very, very short window of time before those scenarios start to be played out," he said. In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Lew said President Barack Obama would be willing to negotiate future budget needs with Congress, if Congress ends the government shutdown. "Congress has to do its job," he said. "We've just spent the last several months with Congress creating this ridiculous choice where either you repeal the Affordable Care Act or you shut down the government or default on the United States. That is not the way we should do business. ... They need to open the government. They need to fund our ability to pay our bills."