Ted Cruz is accusing Republican leaders of prematurely capitulating to President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats on the debt ceiling, and he’s urging his party to take a hard line against a “clean” debt ceiling increase even if it means flirting with a default.

The Texas Republican’s aggressive stance comes as GOP leaders are grasping for a plan to raise the nation’s borrowing limit just two weeks before the nation risks a catastrophic default. The House is mulling a debt ceiling package loaded up with goodies for the right, but the White House has flatly stated it will accept only a “clean” measure without any strings attached.


Given Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s vows to avoid a default and a government shutdown, Cruz says the end game has already been determined: A debt-limit increase that avoids a confrontation with the White House. As Cruz sees it, GOP leaders are planning to “raise the debt ceiling to fund the Obama administration’s big government priorities while doing nothing to stop bankrupting our kids and grandkids.”

“At every stage there’s a promise: ‘Next time we’ll stand and fight but not this time,’” Cruz said Tuesday. “That is leadership’s position. That we can accomplish nothing other than the priorities of the Democrats such as growing government and expanding the debt.”

The rhetoric — and confrontational stance — are classic Cruz. Stake out a position to the right of where his leaders will end up, criticize them for ignoring him and conservative grass-roots voters, then use the ensuing internecine fight to stoke his presidential bid. The next GOP debate is Oct. 28, just days before the Nov. 3 default deadline, and Cruz has positioned himself in the middle of what may be the last debt ceiling battle of the Obama presidency.

Meanwhile, the opening bid from House Republicans is a nonstarter. They are floating legislation that would block any new Obama administration regulations and hamstring the Senate’s Democratic minority in exchange for raising the debt ceiling into 2017. It’s effectively dead on arrival, and may simply serve to grease a clean debt ceiling increase next week by temporarily mollifying fiscal conservatives.

But with the House leadership drama ongoing, as some Republicans beg retiring Speaker John Boehner to stay on and shepherd a debt-limit bill through, McConnell faces increasing pressure to come up with a fallback plan if the House can’t produce legislation Obama would sign. Senate Republicans huddled privately several times on Tuesday to plan, but the strategy, according to an attendee, is currently: “See what the House does.”

At this point, it appears there is nothing that can pass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold and earn Obama’s signature other than a standalone debt ceiling increase. Such an outcome would only stoke Cruz’s ongoing feud with McConnell and GOP leadership over what he views as their weak opposition to Obama.

“Republican leadership should use every constitutional tool we have to actually address the enormous fiscal and economic problems facing this country. History has demonstrated that by far the most effective tool that Congress has to rein in a recalcitrant president is the debt ceiling,” Cruz said.

A spokesman said Cruz is reviewing the House’s conservative legislation that picks a fight both with Senate Democrats’ filibustering capabilities and the White House’s regulatory regime. On Tuesday, Cruz said in a gaggle on Capitol Hill that he wants quick passage of legislation that would allow the United States to pay the interest on its debt and avert the threat of default while Republicans insist on strict spending cuts with the debt ceiling as leverage.

McConnell told reporters on Tuesday that he does not “prefer a clean debt ceiling.” But when he was pressed for a plan, McConnell said he would wait to see what the House does, then respond “accordingly.”

“Look, no matter how many times you ask me, we’re going to wait and see what the House does,” McConnell said.

But in September, when the House struggled to produce a plan to avert a government shutdown, McConnell forged ahead with his own strategy. First, he held a vote on a spending bill defunding Planned Parenthood, and when that failed he moved to a clean continuing resolution that ultimately became law and avoided a shutdown.

But, if McConnell is quietly preparing such a strategy this time around, he isn’t telling his confidants.

“Nobody’s got any answers right now,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), McConnell’s chief deputy.

Still, with solid backing from almost all of the GOP Senate, and previous success boxing out Cruz during the shutdown showdown, McConnell could move an emergency plan if he had to, though he’d have to start early next week. In the House, matters could be far more dicey, particularly if there’s a messy transfer of power after Boehner’s expected departure at the end of October.

The Senate GOP leader is keeping his options open, working on a cybersecurity bill this week but aiming to finish it by early next week, which would free up just enough time to pass a debt ceiling increase, whether it was one that the House passed or a separate proposal to be jammed down the House’s throat.

Conservatives are wary that McConnell and Boehner are maneuvering to do just that, though Republicans say no such decision has been made. On Tuesday, Cruz repeatedly accused Republicans of “moving the ball” only to later come up with an excuse for not going to political war over the debt, an issue that helped usher in the House’s majority in 2010.

“The position of leadership is: ‘Well, yes we have a Republican majority in the House. Well, yes we have a Republican majority in the Senate. But we don’t have 60,’” Cruz said. “And by the way, if we had 60, their position would change to 67, we don’t have the White House. It’s always one step further.”

The Texas Republican has previously accused McConnell of operating as a double agent, conspiring with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to approve Democratic priorities like the Export-Import Bank, Iran nuclear agreement and funding Planned Parenthood. His argument: There’s little difference between Reid’s Senate stewardship and McConnell’s.

On Tuesday, McConnell forcefully rebutted the premise that he’s running the Senate like Reid. McConnell has been clinical about directly engaging with Cruz this year, but he’s also been steadfast that he won’t push his troops into fights they cannot win.

And taking on Obama over the debt ceiling and risking a debt default that could taint the GOP for years is simply not on the McConnell agenda.

“We have a serious right-of-center agenda here in the Senate to try to make as much progress as we can for the country given the fact that we have a president who has very different views what America ought to be like,” McConnell said Tuesday. “Our agenda is entirely different from the agenda that we had last year.”

