Cruz slams Cornyn for supporting ‘lousy’ deal on debt cap
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz tore into other Senate Republicans, including fellow Texan U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, for supporting a “lousy deal” to push off the debt limit and avoid a federal default that was expected early next week.
Cruz complained on an episode of his podcast recorded just after the Senate voted late Thursday night to send the debt deal to the White House that Republicans could have stopped it if Cornyn and 16 other GOP senators not “joined with Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden in adding $4 trillion more in debt in exchange for what were ultimately very small spending cuts.”
“Republicans had it entirely within our power to kill this,” Cruz said, reading off a list of each GOP senator who voted in favor of the deal.
The deal, which pushes off the debt limit for two years in exchange for essentially freezing federal spending, narrowly passed the Senate on a 6336 vote. Most bills have to get at least 60 votes to pass the chamber, and with five Democrats opposing the deal, only a handful more Republican no votes would have sunk it.
Cornyn said in a speech on the Senate floor ahead of the vote that “it was clear a compromise bill would be the only way to avoid a full blown economic crisis, which is what would happen if we were not to raise the debt ceiling.”
“With a Democrat-led Senate and Republicanled House and a Democrat in the White House, bipartisanship was — and is — a necessity,” Cornyn said. “This bill will reduce federal spending by $1.5 trillion over the next decade, which is a strong start in the fight to right America’s financial ship.”
The debt agreement, which passed the House earlier this week on a 314117 vote, drew pushback from both the right and left, with Texans in the House taking on key roles in opposition from both sides of the aisle.
Conservatives who opposed it said it did too little to rein in government spending. Progressives, meanwhile, panned provisions including new work requirements for some federal programs. Fourteen Texas Republicans and four Texas Democrats opposed the bill in the House.
The deal would claw back some unspent COVID funds, restart student loan payments paused during the pandemic and set work requirements for benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families on people up to 55 years old, up from 50, among other Republican priorities.
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a Dallas Democrat challenging Cruz in his reelection bid next year, slammed the Texas Republican for opposing the deal.
“Once again Ted Cruz shows that when Texas needs him, like to prevent an economically disastrous default, he doesn’t show up,” Allred said in a statement. “We don’t have to be embarrassed by our senator who never stands up for us. We can get a new one.”