Everything must be on the table as the U.S. Congress works to cut the deficit, including Medicare, Social Security and entitlements, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told CNBC Monday.
"All the money is fungible, and at the end of the day the deficit has to be reduced," the California Democrat said the day the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling expired.
The government has 11 weeks to raise the debt ceiling or be in default.
Last week House Majority Leader John Boehner set the Republican position: no tax increases, and any dollar to raise the debt ceiling must be accompanied by a dollar reduction in spending.
"Did he say then that the Republicans would vote for avoiding the default if we don’t move forward?" Pelosi responded Monday, noting that Republican support was hard to find when Democrats worked with the Bush administration to enact the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
"We all know we must reduce the deficit ... we must put everything on the table," she said. "We’ve got to look at cuts, for sure—waste, fraud, abuse, duplication, obsolescence, you name it."