not be using scare tactics as the government
approaches a deadline to raise the federal debt ceiling,
Sen. Rand Paul argued Sunday.
The Kentucky Republican said if Democrats end up
insisting on increasing spending limits as part of a deal
to raise the debt ceiling and end the government
shutdown, then it will be considered a “nonstarter” by
Senate Republicans.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Paul
said “the one thing” he cannot accept — as Congress
negotiates a deal to halt current stalemates over the
budget and national debt — is to exceed the spending
caps put into place by a series of forced budget cuts,
known in Washington as the sequester.
“It’s funny, (Democrats are) all about Obamacare
being the law of the land, but so is the sequester,” he
told CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley.
‘Cordial’ shutdown talks under way in Senate
While the cuts went into place earlier this year, a
second round is scheduled to take effect in January
unless there is some agreement on spending on Capitol
Hill.
But Paul, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, said
the current spending limits from the sequester are
needed to help bring fiscal responsibility to the nation’s
capital.
“If we get rid of that, it’s a terrible step in the wrong
direction,” he said.
He added that a possible proposal to exceed sequester
level spending caps would be a new change in policy
for Senate Democrats, who have been pushing for a
debt ceiling bill with no strings attached. The Treasury
Department says it will be unable to pay the
government’s bills unless the debt limit is increased by
Thursday.
“We’re seeing that the Senate Democrats are getting
greedy about this whole thing,” he said.
Paul said he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to pass the
deadline, but he also argued the president was taking a
drastic approach in his warnings about a possible
default.
“It’s irresponsible for him to scare people,” he said.
“He should be the opposite. The leader of the country
should be soothing the markets and saying we will
always pay the interest on our debt.”
The White House has repeatedly warned of the
potential consequences of passing the deadline to raise
the debt limit. Last week, Obama accused Republicans
of saying if they don’t get “100% of their way” in the
current negotiations, “they are going to default on
America’s debt so that America for the first time in
history does not pay its bills.”
“That is not something I will do,” he continued. “We’re
not going to establish that pattern.”
But Paul argued the country has enough money to pay
the interest on its debt and “there’s absolutely no
reason ever to default, and a good leader would be
saying we will never default.”
“Not raising the debt ceiling means you have to
balance your budget,” he added. “It doesn’t mean you
have to default.”
One Democratic leadership aide told CNN’s Dana Bash
that Democrats are not trying to move the spending
levels as a condition to reopening the government in
the short term (now through the end of the year). But
if Republicans and Democrats end up sitting down for
a long-term budget deal after the government opens
and after the debt ceiling is raised, then a provision to
get rid of the spending limits may become part of
those separate talks, the aide said.
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