Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was sanguine about the nation's economic prospects, but he adopted a cautionary tone on the size of the country's deficit.
Bernanke was speaking before the House Budget Committee on June 9.
The likelihood of a double-dip recession - a second period of negative growth - is small, he indicated. Even with a pullback in government stimulus, strengthening consumer spending should be sufficient to support the nascent recovery, the Fed official said.
One may be inclined to debate Bernanke's sunny outlook: Personal consumption expenditures were flat in April, and retail sales largely disappointed.
It's hard to disagree, however, with his contention that the nation's massive deficit needs to be addressed. The Treasury Department released a report on June 4 estimating that the U.S. debt - already at 93 percent of gross domestic product - will reach 105 percent of GDP by 2015.
Even President Barack Obama has suggested that spending cuts are needed: He ordered a number of government agencies to trim their lowest-performing discretionary programs by 5 percent.
"We should be planning now how we will meet [our] looming budgetary challenges," Bernanke said to Congress.
