However, John Boehner,oakley sunglasses the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, insists that Senate Democrats and the President must first agree to trillions of dollars of cuts in government spending.

The same Republicans forced through an extension tofake oakley sunglasses George W Bush-era tax cuts for top income earners when they took control of the House, significantly increasing the government's borrowing needs over the long term.

A failure to raise the limit would force the government to oakley sunglasses saleeither break the limit or else default on payment obligations.

"It is a risky approach not to raise the debt limit in a reasonable time,"discount oakley sunglasses said Mr Bernanke at the Senate committee hearing.

"The worst outcome would be one in which the financial system was again destabilised as we saw following Lehman, for example,cheap ray ban sunglasses which would of course have extremely dire consequences for the US economy."

Mr Bernanke was testifying at the committee about the US central bank'sray ban sunglasses on sale progress in implementing the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law passed in the wake of the crisis.

Some Republican members ofray ban sale Congress would like to see the Democrat-sponsored bill repealed.