Sen. Ted Cruz rips Biden wanting to 'tank the economy' with debt ceiling stalemate
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, argues why President Biden doesn't want to take a debt default off the table.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, lashed out at President Biden for "scaremongering" over the national debt Sunday, telling Fox News that the president is "willing to tank the economy" rather than negotiate with Republicans.
Cruz's comments came just hours after Biden declared himself "blameless" should the U.S. default on its debt. The senator argued Biden should be negotiating with Congress in Washington rather than addressing G-7 nations in Hiroshima, Japan.
"It really is unfortunate to see how Joe Biden is approaching this job. It's all politics all the time, and he consistently goes to the hard left. He's off in Hiroshima right now, in Japan. He should be in Washington, D.C. He should be sitting down and working out a deal, working out a compromise," Cruz said.
"He could take default off the table. Joe Biden doesn't want to take default off the table. Why? Because he wants to scaremonger. He wants to scare people into saying, 'Look at this bad thing that I, Joe Biden, am threatening is going to happen,'" he continued.
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![photo of Sen. Ted Cruz](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2022/10/1200/675/Screen-Shot-2022-10-26-at-3.33.18-PM.png?ve=1&tl=1)
Sen. Ted Cruz blasted President Biden for "scaremongering" about the debt ceiling and the potential for the U.S. to default on its debt. (Fox News)
Biden suggested Sunday morning that he has the authority to unilaterally increase the debt ceiling using the 14th Amendment. Cruz and other experts have blasted that claim, however, saying it would never stand up in court.
"Biden's position on the 14th Amendment is legally frivolous," Cruz said. "By the way, someone else who agreed with that was Barack Obama. The left tried to convince Obama to do this and Obama said, 'No, you can't do this under the Constitution.'"
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Biden acknowledged Sunday that lengthy court proceedings would likely render the move moot, however, pushing a decision well past the debt ceiling deadline.
![President Joe Biden](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2023/04/1200/675/GettyImages-1251861132.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
President Joe Biden is willing to "tank the economy" rather than negotiate with Republicans about a debt ceiling deal, Sen. Cruz says. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Republicans in Congress forced Biden to the negotiating table after months of the White House insisting there would be no discussion of the issue. Biden argued Sunday morning that certain "MAGA Republicans" are seeking to cause a default in an effort to crash the economy ahead of his re-election effort.
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"I've done my part," Biden said.