Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, said if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, the “impact on the economy would be catastrophic.”

“I don’t see why anybody’s playing chicken with the debt ceiling,” Goolsbee said today on ABC’s “This Week” program. “If we get to the point where we damage the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.” 

I remember back on October 3, 2008 when the Bush administration established the legislation that became TARP.  And he gave a similar warning as Austan that if we didn't pass this legislation the entire banking system would collapse, and look what happened!  So are we to now believe that if we fail to raise the debt ceiling we could face an economic catastrophe.  But won't we still if we raise the ceiling??