Charlie Rose Talks to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew

The Treasury can afford to pay its bills, now that a clean debt-ceiling increase has been passed. That must be a relief.
The last couple of months have been an encouraging turn in a more positive direction. You saw Congress pass a budget in December. You saw Congress pass an appropriations bill in January. And in between you had a farm bill that had been locked up for years in disagreement. And the debt ceiling passing takes away the threat of a self-inflicted wound, which would have only hurt our economy. So I’m an optimist. The self-inflicted wounds of the last few years kind of slowed down the recovery. I’m pleased we’re not seeing that.

I’ve heard a lot of people say, “This is the time to invest in this country’s future.”
I don’t believe things like infrastructure are partisan issues. It’s fair to say that Republicans and Democrats alike want to build a better country and want to invest more. When I talk to CEOs, the two things I hear from them are, “Will we have the infrastructure to get what we need in and out of our factories?” And, “Will we have the workforce that we need in 5, 10, 20 years from now?”