Republican John Cornyn doesn't know the debt ceiling is from previous US debt — not new spending

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) took to Twitter to attack CNN reporter Jim Sciutto, who tweeted a reminder that the debt ceiling is from, well, debt. The spending comes from previous legislation and programs passed by previous presidents.

Under former President Donald Trump there was a debt change of $7.8 trillion, according to the personal financing site Self. So, the policies that President Joe Biden is proposing as part of his Build Back Better agenda aren't part of that debt because they haven't passed yet. Like a credit card, you'd have to make the purchase to actually be billed for it.

Cornyn found that confusing, tweeting that it was for future spending because "otherwise we would have already exceeded the debt limit." It left many questioning Cornyn's assessments.

See some of the questions for Cornyn below: