In a new interview with The Hill, GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson said he would not sign any budget deal that raised the debt ceiling if he is elected president.
Carson, who has surpassed Donald Trump in polls of Iowa voters, expressed frustration that Congress waits until the debt limit approaches to negotiate budget deals.
{mosads}“If I’m elected, in January of 2017, we will begin to address the budget immediately,” Carson said. “We’re not going to wait until October or November to do it, when we’re backed against the wall. And I will make it very, very clear that there will not be any budget signed that increases our debt ceiling. It will have to be done.”
Carson said Congressional Republicans wait too long to negotiate deals to suppress federal spending.
“They do the same thing every year,” Carson said. “They wait until their backs are up against the wall and the gun is to their head, and you either raise the debt ceiling or we default and the world falls apart.”
“Why do we do that?” he continued. “I think the time to address that is at the beginning of the fiscal period, not at the end, because then you have other options. Now, they wait until it’s too late to do anything else, and we keep raising the debt and compromising the future of the next generation. It is craziness.”
That’s a sentiment shared by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the favorite to be the next Speaker of the House.
In an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju on Tuesday, Ryan criticized the way a deal came together this week to extend the government’s borrowing authority and increase federal spending caps.
“This process stinks,” Ryan said. He also vowed to change the way Congress does business so that raising the debt limit and negotiating a budget are not perpetually intertwined.
Carson declined to take a shot at outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) for negotiating the budget deal with Democrats on his way out.
“It’s not the preferable way to do it, but it’s done,” Carson said. “Bygones are bygones, so it’s time to move on. But I hope that the new Speaker and several other members will … start looking now to see what we can do so we’re not in this situation next year.”