DeSantis dunks on debt deal: We're 'careening towards bankruptcy'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday slammed the bipartisan debt ceiling deal, saying the country was still “careening towards bankruptcy.”

“Prior to this deal, our country was careening towards bankruptcy, and after this deal, our country will still be careening towards bankruptcy, and to say you can do 4 trillion of increases in the next year and a half, I mean, that’s a massive amount of spending,” DeSantis, who recently announced his 2024 presidential bid, said on “Fox & Friends.”

DeSantis’ comments come as the White House and Republican congressional leaders reached a tentative deal late Saturday to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, narrowly averting a default just days before the projected June 5 deadline. President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy must now work to get the needed support from their respective parties in Congress.

The agreement lifts the debt ceiling and holds spending flat through the 2024 presidential election, while allowing nondefense spending to increase by 1 percent in 2025. The deal would also take back billions of dollars in unspent Covid-19 relief funds Congress has authorized since 2020.

Republicans have been highly critical of the deal, with Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) calling the deal a “turd sandwich” and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) saying it was “insanity.” The White House’s message to Democrats skeptical of the debt ceiling agreement is that it could have been much worse.

“I think that we’ve gotten ourselves on a trajectory here, really, since March of 2020 with some of the Covid spending and totally reset the budget, and they’re sticking with that, and I think that’s just going to be totally inadequate to get us in a better spot,” DeSantis said.

Other candidates for the 2024 Republican nomination, including DeSantis’ most formidable opponent, former President Donald Trump, haven’t weighed in on the deal so far.