Congress Must Act To Raise Debt Limit, Says Obama's Spokesman

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that failure by Congress to raise the nation’s debt ceiling later this Spring would be “calamitous.”

“We should do it,” Carney said at the top of his daily briefing with reporters. “It’s just too darn tricky,” not to, he added.

Carney also said that President Obama regrets voting as a U.S. Senator in 2006 against raising the limit.

“He realizes now that raising the debt ceiling is so important to the health of this economy and the global economy that it was not a vote that, even when you are protesting an administration’s policies, you can play around with.”

Officials have warned that the U.S. will reach its limit — currently set at a little over $14.3 trillion — sometime in May. The Treasury Department has urged Congress to increase the limit by approximately $1.9 trillion, or else put the government at risk of defaulting on its obligations.

Raising the limit in previous years has been a rather routine procedure for lawmakers on Capitol Hill. However, some Republicans have insisted that this year’s vote come attached to serious spending cuts.

The GOP’s threat to thicken an otherwise “clean” bill has White House officials worried that they’ll have to again engage in complex negotiations with Republicans over spending just weeks after narrowly avoiding a government shutdown by agreeing to reduce this year’s budget by almost $40 billion.