Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan, and the debt ceiling

But in a conversation I had with Sen. Mike Lee late last week for a story I posted on Ryan’s budget strategy, the Utah Republican and Tea Party stalwart threw cold water on the notion that mistrust of the 2012 vice presidential nominee is what prompted him and his colleagues to block the appointment of a conference committee that would negotiate a compromise on separate budget resolutions passed by the GOP House and the Democratic Senate.

“This is not about not trusting House Republicans. It has nothing to do with that. This has to do with, we’ve got a job to do and our job is to make sure that we have our say in it,” Lee said. “We want a budget. We just want the to focus on the budget and not on the debt limit; because, when you allow that to be made in conference, you put in the hands of a body that, historically — especially in recent years — has met in private, in secret, behind closed doors, and then you change the vote threshold from 60 down to 51.”