AZ Rep. Eli Crane says debt ceiling bill must be stopped, slams McCarthy for negotiating a bad deal

Arizona GOP Rep. Eli Crane says his main goal Wednesday is to stop the debt ceiling deal that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy struck with President Joe Biden.

"We haven't even voted on this bill yet," Crane said on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. "I'll be honest, I'm pretty focused on trying to stop this bill today."

Crane said that McCarthy's bad negotiations are part of the reason he didn't vote for him as House Speaker. 

"I didn't vote for him because I knew he wasn't a conservative and I was told by several members that I respect that have a lot more experience than me that this is exactly what he would do," he said. "If we elected him as speaker, he wouldn't negotiate good deals. He would get rolled over. That's exactly my perspective on this."

Dozens of House Republicans have publicly expressed disapproval over McCarthy's deal with Biden. They say that the deal fails to cut enough spending and effectively raises the debt limit by $4 trillion, rather than the $1.5 trillion that the House voted for.

"My colleagues and I will continue to try and hold the line," Crane stated. "And we will do it in every session and every vote that we possibly can."

One of the biggest GOP complaints about the deal is how it deals with the IRS. The bill rescinds only about $1.4 billion of the nearly $80 billion in funding for the agency enacted last August, and there is reportedly a separate deal that would repurpose $20 billion of the $80 billion for fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

Crane said that this deal will add trillions to the national debt.

"Watching the machine in action — they go in, they make a horrible deal and then they come back and they try to sell it not only to the conference, but then to the American people that they have some historic bill with historic cuts in it," he said. "Meanwhile, if you look at it, it's at least adding $4 trillion onto our national deficit."