Fox News Attempts To Pull A Fast One On Republicans

Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, was asked in an interview with Fox News about the Republican’s party history of raising the debt ceiling without requiring any budget cuts during the Trump administration. Currently, the two parties in Congress are in a heated discussion over the debt limit increase. If they fail to agree on increasing the debt, then the United States might need to default on its debt which could harm the world economy. It is expected that the country could default as early as June 1st.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has maintained that his House majority is not going to agree to a debt ceiling increase if President Joe Biden and the Democrats do not agree to cut spending. At the same time, Biden has refused to have the debt limit increase be used as a bargaining chip in budget cut negotiations. He has also accused the Republicans of holding the debt ceiling increase hostage, to which the Republicans have responded that Biden’s attitude towards spending cuts could end up leading to the country defaulting on its debt.

On Sunday, in an appearance on Fox News, host Shannon Bream specifically asked Cruz about the criticism that the party has faced regarding its approach to the debt ceiling increase. As many have pointed out, under former President Donald Trump the debt ceiling had been increased three times, without those increases being accompanied by spending cut requirements. Bream proceeded to ask whether it would be fair to claim that the Republicans have also contributed to the national debt and questioned how different the current situation is from raising the debt ceiling for Trump.

Cruz added that the difference comes from the fact that the debt is now massive. He added that during COVID they agreed to relief which ended up being expensive but was ultimately a lifesaver for millions of Americans. However, he stated that following Biden’s election, he went on a massive spending spree, which included hiring thousands of IRS officers, which conservatives agree was unnecessary.