Carson: When I’m President I Will Veto Any Debt Ceiling Raise

Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson said Tuesday that under his administration, he will veto any budget that raises the debt ceiling, calling the current process “craziness.”

In an interview with The Hill, Carson said that if elected, “January of 2017, we will begin to address the budget immediately,” adding that he will not wait “until October or November to do it, when we’re backed against the wall.”

Carson expressed dissatisfaction with the current budget process, saying, “they do the same thing every year: 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.”

“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,” Carson said. “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.”

Reflecting on the tentative budget deal that Congress and the White House struck last night, Carson said the process was “not the preferable way to do it,” but suggested “it’s time to move on.”

“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,” Carson added.

Indeed Paul Ryan — who will likely take over as Speaker of the House when John Boehner steps down at the end of this week — mirrored Carson’s irritation with the budget deal, telling reporters, “this process stinks.”

“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.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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