Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz reacted harshly on Monday to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s debt ceiling agreement with President Joe Biden.
Cruz spoke about the debt ceiling deal on his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” and highlighted how Democrats reacted positively to the agreement. (RELATED: Ted Cruz Calls For Investigation Into Anheuser-Busch For Allegedly ‘Knowingly Marketing To Children’)
The government is spending like drunken sailors — and your bills are higher because of it. Time to rein in federal spending!
More on the Biden-McCarthy debt deal on the latest #Verdict. https://t.co/6rTqfVZJfm
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 29, 2023
“Look, if you want to know how to assess this deal, one of the ways to do so is listen to what the Democrats are saying. There, Joe Biden is urging every Democrat to support it,” Cruz said 21 minutes into his Monday podcast episode. He mentioned tweets by former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and prominent never-Trumper Bill Kristol.
“As to that last question, hell no Bill, and you have Trump derangement syndrome, which makes you think the country is better off handing our nation over to out of control Marxists than actually winning policy victories in the White House. But that does tell you something about how people are reacting to this deal that folks on the far left are cheerleading it right now.”
Cruz followed up by giving his assessment of the specific provisions laid out in the debt ceiling agreement. “And so if you just think in terms of big picture comparison, increasing the debt limit from 1.5 trillion to 4 trillion is a big increase. And the spending reductions are much, much smaller. That’s the biggest reason I’m disappointed by what we’re looking at.”
Key items in the agreement include freezing non-defense discretionary spending at fiscal year 2022 levels, capping federal spending increases at one percent per year over a six year period, work requirements for welfare recipients, resuming student loan payments and permitting reform to speed up energy projects.
Conservative lawmakers led by Republican Reps. Dan Bishop of North Carolina and Chip Roy have criticized the agreement for raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion in exchange for modest concessions.