"(The fiscal deficit is) much bigger challenge than anything we faced as a government in the last several decades on the budget side," the treasury chief said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, "but it is a manageable challenge for the U.S.."The comment referred to the current fiscal deficit problems that the U.S. government was facing. In a letter on April 4, Geithner told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that the U.S. would reach the debt limit of 14.3 trillion by May 16.

    "There is no alternative," said Geithner, stressing that bipartisan efforts were required to address the challenge that both democrats and republicans needed to understand the importance of bringing down the deficit.

    "Our objective is to take advantage of this to build bipartisan consensus," the treasury secretary voiced confidence at the collaboration of the two parties, saying "we have a chance to do that now because there is broad agreement among both republicans and democrats."Geithner said the two parties have reached agreements "on the scale of deficit reduction that need to commit to achieve," and "substantially agreements" on some of the components of that.

    Besides fiscal deficit problems, Geithner also pointed out that economic growth and financial repair and reform were the other two major challenges that the U.S. was facing right now.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)