Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Ted Cruz Was Right, Again

The usual suspects are attacking Ted Cruz for doing his job. - Matthew Vadum/American Thinker
There was never, after all, a reason to rush an all-encompassing bill funding the federal government before appropriations ran out on Dec. 11. Instead of giving Obama virtually everything he wanted despite his party's historic drubbing at the polls last month, lawmakers could easily have drafted a stopgap spending bill to carry them over to January, when Republicans will control both chambers of Congress and have greater bargaining power in negotiations with the president.

But they didn't. After hours and days of arm-twisting, they rammed an abominable spending bill through Congress that funds Obama's Democrat voter-importation program.

It was an easy vote. A gimme.

But to their everlasting shame, 20 Republicans voted to reject Cruz's point of order, waive the Constitution, and green-light Obama's amnesty.

These quislings are Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), Dan Coats (Ind.), Thad Cochran (Miss.), Susan Collins (Me.), Bob Corker (Tenn.), John Cornyn (Texas), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Dean Heller (Nev.), Ron Johnson (Wisc.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), John McCain (Ariz.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Pat Toomey (Penn.), and Roger Wicker (Miss.)....
Ted Cruz Strikes Back: ‘Too Many Republicans Willing to Be Complicit’ - Rob Bluey/Daily Signal
...The outspoken Texas Republican joined with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to force the Senate to take a vote related to President Obama’s recent immigration actions. The measure was defeated, 74-22, after Cruz said Republican leaders urged senators to vote against the constitutional point of order. (View the roll call vote.)

“Too many politicians in Washington don’t believe we can stand and fight,” Cruz told (Sean) Hannity.

He lamented that Republican leaders frequently plead to put off tough fights for another day, as they wanted to do on immigration. Cruz predicted Republicans once again would find an excuse not to act next year as well:

Mark my words, Sean, the odds are enormous that come January or February, the very same voices are going to say, ‘Well, we’ve got a Republican majority, but we don’t have 60 votes, so we can’t fight yet.’ If we had 60 votes, they would come back and say, ‘You know, we have 60 votes but we don’t have 67. We don’t have enough to override a veto.’

“It’s always, always, always let’s fight tomorrow,”
Cruz said. “At some point, what the heck are we doing? Either stand up and demonstrate we believe the principles we keep promising voters … or pack it up already.”