Senator Cruz statement on U.S. debt ceiling increase
June 1, 2023 | Washington, D.C.
Last night, the U.S. Senate convened to take up legislation to once again suspend the debt ceiling, which is a cap on the nation’s overall borrowing limit. According to U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), this so-called “default” never would have been on the table had Biden simply given the public assurances that the United States would never fail to pay its debt obligations.
Calling the necessity and urgency behind passing this bill a fabrication by Biden administration scare tactics, Senator Cruz said:
“A responsible president would stand up and look the American people in the eye and say, ‘Hear me clearly: America will never, ever, ever default on our debt.’ The way you do that, regardless of what happens with the debt ceiling, is every month the federal government takes in substantially more in tax revenue than interest on the debt.”
The U.S. Senate passed the Fiscal “Responsibility” Act in a 63 to 36 vote on Thursday evening. The Act was signed into law by Biden on June 3.
Senator Cruz released the following statement after the vote
“While there were some good elements to this deal, such as reclaiming some unspent Covid-19 funds, there were a lot of elements that were disappointing. I’m upset this agreement did not cut more, and I’m frustrated this agreement adds a lot to the debt in exchange for relatively few spending cuts.
“Let’s put this debt ceiling deal into perspective: The year before the Covid pandemic— less than four years ago—we were spending $4.4 trillion to run the government and fund things like the military, our veterans, and Social Security. To deal with the pandemic, Congress spent trillions of additional dollars to address the national emergency. The last year of the pandemic—FY2022—Congress spent $6.3 trillion to keep the government running.
“At this point, President Biden and Congress agree that the Covid emergency is over, yet they want the emergency spending to continue. Our spending levels should normalize and return to pre-pandemic levels. But what is so remarkable about the debt ceiling debate we’ve seen is that there was no discussion of returning back to pre-pandemic spending levels.
“House Republicans initially asked for a return to the funding levels we had in December 2022, just six months ago, before Congress passed its last big spending bill. Instead, the White House refused, and Congress is locking in excessive spending levels that will continue to fuel inflation and keep us on the current reckless fiscal path that we are on. This means the funding for 87,000 new IRS agents remains largely untouched, and a host of pork-barrel projects that will increase spending by nearly $4 trillion will continue.
“I simply cannot support a debt limit deal that continues the same reckless spending that has produced record inflation, slowed our economic recovery, and which has caused immense harm to families in Texas and across America.”
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz
(713) 718-3057 (TX office)
(202) 224-5922 (D.C. office)
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U.S. Senator John Cornyn
(713) 572-3337 (TX office)
(202) 224-2934 (D.C. office)
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