Cornyn: 'We will raise the debt ceiling'

Congress will raise the debt ceiling and not allow the country to default, according to Republican Sen. John Cornyn (Texas).

"We will raise the debt ceiling. We're not going to default on our debt," Cornyn said in an interview with The Houston Chronicle. 

Republicans are mulling a number of legislative strategies for increasing the debt ceiling. On Thursday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said House Republicans were discussing whether to push for a short-term hike in order to allow for more time to negotiate a larger deficit reduction plan.

But some in the GOP have suggested letting the country hit the debt ceiling to force cuts in government spending, arguing that the government's debt payments would be unaffected. 

Cornyn, however, said the borrowing limit will be increased before the government's borrowing authority is exhausted.

"I will tell you unequivocally, we're not going to default," Cornyn told the Chronicle.

In a separate op-ed for the Chronicle roughly a week earlier, Cornyn had suggested that a partial government shutdown might be necessary for legislators to agree on a long-term deficit reduction play.

"It may be necessary to partially shut down the government in order to secure the long-term fiscal well being of our country, rather than plod along the path of Greece, Italy and Spain," Cornyn wrote in the opinion piece. "President Obama needs to take note of this reality and put forward a plan to avoid it immediately."

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