The Hill News

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Sunday that Republicans will not vote to raise the nation's debt ceiling unless a plan is put in place to control long-term spending and rein in the national debt.

"I intend to vote against raising the debt ceiling unless we can get some systemic reforms â€" the kind the president’s own fiscal commission recommended," Cornyn said on CNN's "State of the Union." "That’s the price that’s going to have to be paid â€" systemic reforms â€" in order to get Republican support for raising the debt ceiling. Otherwise, I think you’re going to see Democrats having to do that all by themselves."

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), appearing opposite Cornyn, agreed that a long-term budget solution is needed, but he said that it would be irresponsible to flirt with not raising the debt ceiling.

"It frightens the heck out of me that anyone responsible would say, 'let’s go ahead and light the fuse that might cause the next economic mel! tdown,'" Warner said. "The notion that America would potentially even think about defaulting on its debt and what that could do in terms of driving up interest rates, it would just be totally irresponsible. You gotta believe that cooler, saner heads will prevail on the debt limit."

The debt ceiling, which is set by Congress, is currently about $14.3 trillion. The national debt is expected to hit that marker sometime this month.

Cornyn floated one possible way of getting him to support the debt ceiling raise: "I think we need to pass a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution that 47 of my colleagues and I rolled out this week."