U.S. should take action to tackle deficit: Bernanke

WASHINGTON, April 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that the United States should take action to tackle the country's deficit problem.

"We as a nation face the difficult but essential task of achieving longer-term sustainability of the nation's fiscal position," Bernanke told lawmakers at a congressional hearing.

In written testimony to Congress, the central bank chief said that "addressing the country's fiscal problems will require difficult choices, but postponing them will only make them more difficult."

It was the second time in a week that the Fed chief emphasized the country's deficit issue in public.

Bernanke warned last Wednesday that the U.S. Congress and the White House need to work on a plan to whittle down record-high budget deficits, the most noticeable long-term challenge that the country faces.

"To avoid large and unsustainable budget deficits, the nation will ultimately have to choose among higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, less spending on everything else from education to defense, or some combination of the above," Bernanke said.