Vice-president-elect Joe Biden likened the country’s economic crisis to the attacks of 9/11 Monday in a private meeting on Capitol Hill.

“We’re at war,” Biden told congressional leaders of both parties during their sit-down with Barack Obama in the Capitol, according to two sources familiar with the exchange.

It’s not the first time the vice-president-elect has used stark language to underscore the perilous state of the economy. In an interview last month on ABC’s “This Week,” Biden said that a stimulus package was needed to keep the economy from “absolutely tanking.”

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Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander said Biden “was speaking of how after September 11th, that the Congress came together and worked together for the sake of the country, that the Congress worked day and night to accomplish what was necessary. We did it then and we can do it now.”

Biden’s grim warning came as Obama began a public push for quick passage of a massive economic growth package in meetings with congressional leaders and his economic team.

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