Cornyn: 'Irresponsible' to force last-minute vote on debt deal

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) on Sunday accused President Obama of failing to take a leadership role in ongoing negotiations about the debt ceiling and said it would be "irresponsible" to force Congress to vote on a last-minute debt deal.

Cornyn said on Fox News Sunday that Obama hasn't outlined a firm proposal for spending cuts to accompany an increase in the debt ceiling. The Treasury Department says Congress must raise the limit by Aug. 2.

"What I'm concerned about is the president ... not seriously putting a proposal forward but rather just criticizing those who have," Cornyn said. "We are running up against this deadline. And they're going to try to present it as a fait accompli, nobody is going to have time to read it or consider the implications of it and it's going to say you have to pass it or the economy is going down the tubes. That's just irresponsible."

Republicans want the package to include spending cuts on par with the increase to the debt limit. Democrats have said an agreement should include new revenues — most likely in the form of closing tax loopholes and ending subsidies, rather than raising specific tax rates.

Cornyn, a member of the GOP leadership, reiterated on Sunday that he is open to some of those proposals and said he believes "rank-and-file" Republicans will support that approach to raising revenue.

"We just had a very important vote about the ethanol subsidy, which we voted overwhelmingly to repeal that. And I think there's now a deal being worked out to phase it out maybe in a more sensible way," he said. "But, yes, this is a fruitful area for us to work on in a bipartisan way."

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