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.
No. Otherwise we would have already exceeded the debt limit. This is for future spending.https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1445858142328295426\u00a0\u2026— Senator John Cornyn (@Senator John Cornyn) 1633562656
See some of the questions for Cornyn below:
What happened this year is the 2019 suspension expired at the end of July, and with it the borrowing authority of the US government, TWO YEARS over the limit, and right now Secretary Yellen is running out of tricks to get around it, and we are hurtling toward default.— Ghastreblyansky (@Ghastreblyansky) 1633570567
This debt in red, that's what we are paying. That debt ceiling you raised 3 times, created the debt that we now need to pay off.pic.twitter.com/hWi4AyAo8K— Just Me (@Just Me) 1633570077
pic.twitter.com/VMcPTqjLRS— Soren McCarthy (@Soren McCarthy) 1633575079
Are you really this du*mb? This is about paying off debt that has already occurred which was under Trump! I can\u2019t believe you\u2019ve been in the Senate this long and you don\u2019t know this.— Robbin \ud83c\udf83\ud83e\uddd9\u200d\u2640\ufe0f\ud83d\udc7bDOUBLE VACCINATED \ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89& proud! (@Robbin \ud83c\udf83\ud83e\uddd9\u200d\u2640\ufe0f\ud83d\udc7bDOUBLE VACCINATED \ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89& proud!) 1633587199
