Reader TTS

Following are excerpts from the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with United States Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew on CNBC's "Squawk Box" today. Following are links to the

video: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000434016, http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000434015 and http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000434017.

I think it's very important to remember that only Congress can act to raise the debt limit. I will have used all the tools that I have as of November 3rdand then we're operating on cash.

Just think about it, we have a government of the United States, a 4 trillion a year enterprise, where swings of a few billion dollars can determine whether or not you have enough cash to pay

your bills. It's ridiculous. The debt limit needs to be raised.

LEW: I think the right amount of cash to have on hand is $150 billion that would give us the ability to run a week what business would run without the ability

QUICK: Berkshire Hathaway keeps around more than 30 billion dollars in cash on hand.

LEW: We came below 150 quite some time ago. We went back up on September 15 when we got quarterly tax revenues, but since then it's dropped from just about 150 to 75 and it's falling

everyday so we're going to get to $30 billion we believe on the third of November.

We have conservative projections in our budget that actually if you look over the last few years we've predicted higher interest rates not lower interest rates because that's the

conservative thing to do to make sure you don't get surprised by a higher debt service cost. I think our budget projections are sound and we can manage wherever the Fed goes.

I don't believe the government of the United States can pick and choose what bills it pays. Fundamentally, you're going to be in default if you don't pay all your bills. The people who

support prioritization say somethings are more important than others, I don't believe that. I think you have to pay social security, you have to pay veterans, you have to keep the lights on

in veterans' hospitals, and you have to pay principal on interest.

When you see the provisions that we have negotiated on currency as part of the conversation on TPP it will be a sidepiece. It is the toughest currency agreement that we ever had in this

regards. High standards, its transparency, and it's a mechanism to engage to make sure the countries and TPP keep their word.

Historically, it's turned out to be very important to have budget assumptions that are conservative, because it's a good thing when you're surprised by good news, it's not so good when

you're surprised by bad news.

I made clear when I announced that we were redesigning the currency in June that we were going to continue to honor Alexander Hamilton and we will continue to honor Alexander Hamilton.

The right answer is to get real reform. Housing finance reform where we get to a new system where we've defined the risk that is being taken. Not have this open ended risk, which we have

with Fannie and Freddie. Which we still have today. $250 billion of contingent risk because we the taxpayers stand behind Fannie and Freddie. You know, let's just remember that Fannie and

Freddie failed, an enormous investment of public money was made, there was huge damage to our economy, and we continue to have a $250 billion contingent liability. So this notion that

somehow the slate is clean is just not correct.

I think we have to make sure that China understands that it is very important that they keep their commitment to let the Renminbi go up as well as down –

Becky Quick: To this point they have only shown that they will allow it to go down.

Jack Lew: And that's something we're going to see in the medium term. The snapshot today is not the test.

With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, CNBC World and CNBC HD , CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time

financial market coverage and business information to approximately 371 million homes worldwide, including more than 100 million households in the United States and Canada. CNBC also

provides daily business updates to 400 million households across China. The network's 15 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. ET) is

produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide. CNBC at night features a mix of new reality programming, CNBC's

highly successful series produced exclusively for CNBC and a number of distinctive in-house documentaries.

CNBC also has a vast portfolio of digital products which deliver real-time financial market news and information across a variety of platforms. These include CNBC.com, the online destination

for global business; CNBC PRO, the premium, integrated desktop/mobile service that provides real-time global market data and live access to CNBC global programming; and a suite of CNBC

Mobile products including the CNBC Real-Time iPhone and iPad Apps.

Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at http://www.nbcumv.com/mediavillage/networks/cnbc/.

Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inbox

Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.

© 2025 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Division of NBCUniversal