Obama says expects Congress will raise debt ceiling before deadline

 
President Barack Obama said he does not expect to have to take any unusual steps to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt because he believes Congress will raise the debt ceiling before a looming Oct. 17 deadline.           

"I don't expect to get there," Obama said in an interview with the Associated Press released on Saturday. "There were at least some quotes yesterday that (House of Representatives) Speaker (John) Boehner is willing to make sure that we don't default," he said.                    

"And I'm pretty willing to bet that there are enough votes in the House of Representatives right now to make sure that the United States doesn't end up being a deadbeat," Obama said.         

On another note, President Obama said the United States believes Iran is a year or a more away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon, describing the estimate as "conservative."                     
"Our assessment continues to be a year or more away, and in fact actually our estimate is probably more conservative than the estimates of Israeli intelligence services," Obama said in reply to a question about the U.S. intelligence assessment on Iran's timetable for nuclear weapons. 


AP