Nightly Business Report

Here's Maya MacGuineas, director of the fiscal policy program at the New America Foundation. ...

MAYA MACGUINEAS, PRES., COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET: You can't borrow this much money without at some point your creditors saying, ... and more »

MAYA MACGUINEAS, PRES., COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET: What we're doing is we are borrowing to keep the economy afloat and this is a short term strategy. The problem is that the trillion dollars is a reminder that we don't have any plan to stop borrowing at an unsustainable level.

But budget watchdog Maya Macguineas is not sure it's a good idea to pay back the money before the banks are completely out of danger.

MAYA MACGUINEAS, PRES., COMMITTEE FOR A REPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET: It's good if it works, if the economy and the banks are ready to handle starting to repay and we're starting to come out of this downturn, but if it's premature and we have to go through this whole exercise again, of the Treasury giving money… more