Ted Cruz slams GOP leadership for ‘show vote’ on debt ceiling

CNN ^ | 02/20/2014 | Dana Davidsen

[SoConPubbie]

(CNN) – Ted Cruz sharpened his critique against the Republican establishment in Washington, taking leaders in his party to task for allowing GOP senators to cast a “show vote” on the debt ceiling and misleading constituents.

. . .

"Republican leadership said, we want this to pass, but if every senator affirmatively consents to doing it on 51 votes, then we can all cast a vote no and we can go home to our constituents and say we opposed it," he said. "And listen, that sort of show vote, that sort of trickery to the constituents is why Congress has a 13 percent approval rating.”

Cruz added: "In my view, we need to be honest with our constituents. And last week, what it was all about was truth and transparency. I think all 45 Republicans should have stood together and said, of course not.’"

Cruz drew fire from fellow Republicans after he attempted to block the Senate from raising the debt ceiling earlier this month, forcing his GOP colleagues to choose between conservative purity and political pragmatism. The Senate voted 67-31 to break Cruz's filibuster as a dozen Republicans crossed party lines to vote with the Democrats. The final vote to approve a year-long debt-ceiling extension went along party lines.

. . .

"I mean the funny thing is, what I told the voters of Texas, I guarantee you, all 45 of those Republican senators tell the voters of their states the same thing, which is they're going to lead the fight to stop the spending, to stop the debt," he said.

"And if 45 Republicans had stood together, nobody gets thrown under the bus."

[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[SoConPubbie]

Ted Cruz Ping!

If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.

Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!

[txrefugee]

Ted Cruz is right. If all 45GOP senators had voted NO on cloture, Harry Reid couldn’t have brought the Enslave Your Children in Debt bill to the floor. Any senator who voted Yes on cloture enabled Reid to pass the bill, knowing he had 55 Democrat votes to do so. McConnell and Cornyn should be fired for aiding the enemy.

[fruser1]

I can’t get over how folks like Boehner decide to stop fighting democrats instead of deciding to stop fighting the tea party.

[Diogenesis]

There is ONE PARTY in America.

The EXEMPT.
The hated.
The unaccountable.

[Common Sense 101]

And that POS Cornyn is running ads asaying that he voted against raising the debt ceiling... no mention that it is AFTER he voted FOR cloture. Bottom line... Demonic Party scum and GOPe pansies are one in the same, and they are convinced that the masses are stupid and apathetic. Sadly, most are... how else would an incompetent, lazy, ignorant communist POS of O-hole be voted into office twice.

[Servant of the Cross]

Ted Cruz on Rush Limbaugh program last year ... the GOP needs an 'attitude' adjustment ...

I will tell you the single biggest surprise in arriving to the Senate is the defeatist attitude here. I mean, we don’t even talk about how to win a fight. There’s no discussion. We talk about, “Hey, let’s get a show vote so we can go tell our constituents we’re doing something.” But I promise you, Rush, if you had to sit through one Senate lunch, you’d be in therapy for a month.

Many of these are my friends, but they’ve been here a long time, and they’re beaten down, and they don’t believe we can win. They don’t believe it can happen, and the answer they say on every issue is, “No, we can’t do it. We can’t do it.”

And Washington, look, in both parties you’ve got entrenched politicians who have barely veiled contempt for the American people. I mean they think their voters are gullible rubes, and, you know, you give them a little show vote, you tell ‘em, “Hey, I’m totally with you,” then they go to Washington and they don’t actually do what they say.

[Mr. K]

I watched that interview on CNN

WHY DO WE BOTHER TO GO ON CNN??

After Cruz made GREAT arguments for what he did, the idiot interviewer was herself interviewed by another idiot talking head who incredulously asked ‘but does he at least acknowledge the animosity he has caused??”

Cruz's argument was PERFECT!!

He said ALL the GOP leadership made a deal with Harry Reid that they knew the debt ceiling issue was going to pass anyway so they [the GOP sentaors] were all able to vote NO on the GOP side and go back to their districts saying they voted against it. Cruz would not go along with a sham vote just so he could say he voted against it. Cruz forced at least the leadership to vote for cloture, when they could not get anyone else in the GOP to vote for it.

I am certain Cornyn is furious at Cruz, but Cruz refused to take that bait, when asked about it.

[Buckeye McFrog]

He is absolutely right.

It’s come to where the rampant dishonesty, deceit, and total disrespect for our intelligence repel me even more than the content of the actual votes they are casting.

[Bratch]

Ted Cruz is right.

If all 45 GOP senators had voted NO on cloture, Harry Reid couldn’t have brought the Enslave Your Children in Debt bill to the floor. Any senator who voted Yes on cloture enabled Reid to pass the bill, knowing he had 55 Democrat votes to do so.

McConnell and Cornyn should be fired for aiding the enemy.

And guess what would have happened next.

---

With some such thought in mind, Speaker John Boehner strode to the floor of the House to offer a "clean" debt ceiling bill and relied on Nancy Pelosi's Democrats to pass it. They did.

"Surrender" and "betrayal," are among the epithets coming the Speaker's way.

Yet Boehner was holding a losing hand. Had he added a GOP wish-list bill to the debt ceiling, Harry Reid's Senate would have rejected it. President Obama would have denounced it as putting at risk the full faith and credit of the United States.

Big Media would have piled on. The markets would have been rattled. The Dow would have begun to swoon. Corporate America, cash cow of the Republican Party, would have begun to howl.

A clamor to pass a clean debt ceiling bill or risk a new recession would have arisen. And the House Republicans would have caved, as they finally had to cave on the budget bill last fall.

Rather than play Lord Raglan and lead his cavalry in another Charge of the Light Brigade, Boehner chose to withdraw to fight another day on another field.

---

[lewislynn]

Boehner chose to withdraw to fight another day on another field.

That's another GOPe lie told many times. It's never happened and never will.

[mrsmel]

The thing is, that “other day” never comes. Not even when it really matters. They don’t save less important votes and make a stand on the big things, no-they cave on everything.