Republicans say the dire warnings issued by Democrats if the nation鈥檚 debt limit isn鈥檛 raised are just 鈥渟care tactics鈥�.

But during a banking committee hearing on Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said defaulting on U.S. debts could lead to higher unemployment and slow the nation鈥檚 economic recovery.

Here鈥檚 what he told Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO).

鈥淐an you think of anything that would be more destructive to my desire to pay down our deficit than to fail to raise the debt ceiling?鈥� Bennet asked.

Bernanke replied, 鈥淵ou tax my imagination.鈥�

Senate leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is the latest Democrat to warn of a possible cutoff of Social Security payments if there is no deal to raise the government's borrowing limit by early August.

President Barack Obama made a similar statement earlier this week.