Ted Cruz: Biden lacks 'mental faculties' to negotiate with GOP on debt ceiling

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday suggested that President Joe Biden was not mentally equipped to handle any negotiations with Republicans on raising the debt limit.

Cruz made the remarks as part of a press conference alongside fellow Republican senators, who gathered to show support for a Republican-led debt limit plan that the House approved last week, Fox News reported. The Texas senator referenced Biden's past leading role during a debt limit negotiation in 2011 and contended that he had not done so in this instance due to a failing of his mental state.

"President Joe Biden needs to do the same thing," Cruz said in reference to the president's past conciliatory stance on the matter. "And I'll say, sadly, the reason he hasn't so far I believe, is because his mental faculties are too diminished right now to do what he did in 2011, to sit down and actually work together on a solution to the problems."

Cracks about Biden's mental state have become increasingly common in recent years, with many pointing to his age and tendency to make major gaffes while alleging the commander-in-chief is in cognitive decline.

He went on to lament that Biden's aides, in the absence of his leadership, had taken an intractable position on the debt and were risking the nation's financial stability, saying "[w]hat we're left with is a bunch of young staffers in the White House, radical children, who are perfectly willing to risk a default on the debt because they have no appreciation of the chaos and misery and damage."

The House last week approved a plan to increase the debt ceiling for one year and cap the growth of domestic spending, though it faces uncertain prospects in the narrowly divided Senate and Biden has said he would veto the measure should it reach his desk.

Cruz's remarks follow Biden's calling of a May 9 meeting with congressional leaders to discuss the matter, which comes as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the nation will run out of cash by June 1.

The United States hit its $31.38 trillion spending limit in January and the Treasury has resorted to unconventional means to pay the government's bills in the interim.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.