Senate conservatives want to kill the just-announced budget and debt-limit deal that outgoing House speaker John Boehner negotiated with the White House.

Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) called for a short-term agreement that would buy time beyond the November 3 debt-limit deadline for Paul Ryan to take over as House speaker. “The deadline is artificial and can easily be pushed back with a short-term measure if needed,” Sessions said in a Tuesday statement to National Review. “Republicans should insist that any vote on spending caps or the debt ceiling be delayed until the House has chosen a new speaker — and until there has been a full conversation among our conference and, most importantly, our voters. There is no urgency to pass a two-year deal.”

Senator Ted Cruz, the firebrand Texan presidential candidate who is a favorite of many conservatives, also denounced the agreement. “We now have a GOP Congress, but no one watching this budget surrender would know it,” he said. “For anyone wondering about the source of the American people’s volcanic frustration with Washington, one need look no further than so-called ‘Republican’ majorities in both houses of Congress increasing the budget and our debt by more than $400 billion. It’s ridiculous, deceitful, and a disgrace.”

EDITORIAL: A Disappointing Finish for Boehner

Boehner said he negotiated the debt-limit agreement in order to spare Ryan the political difficulty of having to do so in what would be his first days as speaker. “This’ll make it easier for the entire Congress for the balance of this year, and it’ll make next year a whole lot smoother for the Congress as well,” he said Tuesday.

Ryan, for his part, suggested that the damage was done months ago, when Republican leaders failed to initiate a lengthy debate about the debt ceiling. ”This is not the way to do the people’s business,” he told reporters. “And under new management we are not going to do the people’s business this way. We are up against a deadline — that’s unfortunate. But going forward we can’t do the people’s business. As a conference we should’ve been meeting months ago to discuss these things to have a unified strategy going forward.”

— Joel Gehrke is a political reporter for National Review.

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