Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued on Wednesday that President Biden’s “diminished mental faculties” are preventing him from negotiating with Republicans on the debt limit.
Cruz expressed concern that “radical children” among the White House staff would push the U.S. government into default.
In support of the House GOP debt limit bill passed last week, more than a dozen Republican senators, led by Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), held a press conference urging Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to concede to their demands for spending cuts.
Cruz recalled that Biden, as vice president, successfully led talks with the GOP to avert a near-default in 2011.
The senator lamented that Biden’s current mental state prevents him from engaging in similar negotiations. “What we’re left with is a bunch of young staffers in the White House, radical children, who are perfectly willing to risk a default on the debt because they have no appreciation of the chaos and misery and damage,” Cruz said.
Cruz acknowledged it as a “major victory” that President Biden invited the top four Congressional leaders to the White House for a May 9 meeting to discuss the debt—a meeting all four leaders have agreed to attend.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has repeatedly demanded a sit-down with Biden to discuss coupling a debt limit increase with GOP-sought spending cuts, an idea Biden has rejected.
“It is a major victory for America that the day before yesterday, Biden finally blinked and said, ‘Okay, I’ll sit down and talk.’ That’s the first step. Now the second step is, let’s solve the problem,” Cruz stated.
House Republicans passed their bill on April 26 after intense negotiations in the preceding days.
The bill proposes raising the debt limit through March 2024 or by $1.5 trillion—whichever is reached first.
The legislation also includes cutting federal spending to 2022 levels, a reduction of approximately $140 billion to $180 billion compared to this year.
Biden and Senate Democrats have criticized the bill, arguing that it would defund essential federal programs.
They have demanded a “clean” debt ceiling increase without conditions, a proposition most Republicans have opposed.
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