Posted on 08/20/2015 6:31:34 PM PDT by markomalley
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is moving ahead with his pledge to defund Planned Parenthood at any cost this fall, a move that puts him directly at odds with Senate leadership.
In an op-ed published Thursday by USA Today, Cruz declared that he will “lead the fight” to defund Planned Parenthood after a series of undercover videos raised questions about its fetal tissue donation program.
Cruz warned Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell not to “schedule or facilitate” any legislation that doles out federal dollars to Planned Parenthood – referring to a bill that must pass Congress this fall to fund the government.
“Instead, the Department of Justice needs to investigate and prosecute Planned Parenthood for any potential criminal actions of commercial trafficking of fetal organs,” said Cruz, who is also a GOP presidential candidate.
Cruz also condemned what he called a “show vote” in the Senate earlier this month, when McConnell scheduled a vote to defund Planned Parenthood that stood little chance of passage.
Since then, Cruz has ramped up his rhetoric on Planned Parenthood, making it part of his campaign pitch.
McConnell, who has condemned Planned Parenthood, has said he will not let members of his party attempt to shut down the government, even if it means continuing funding for the women’s health provider. The consequences of such a tactic, he said, could be as damaging as the party's previous government shutdown in 2013 – also led by Cruz.
“We’ve been down this path before,” McConnell said in early August, before senators departed for recess. “This is a tactic that’s been tried going back to the ’90s, frequently by Republican majorities that always have the same ending: that the focus is on the fact that the government is shut down, not on what the underlying issue that is being protested is.”
Planned Parenthood was dragged into the national spotlight this summer after an anti-abortion group released seven secretly recorded videos targeting the organization. The videos have since acquired millions of views, and nearly 60 percent of voters said they were paying attention to the controversy, according to this week’s Kaiser Family Foundation poll.
Yes sir, that is our Ted Cruz!
Never give up! Never stop fighting for what’s right!
yeah, and I noticed he didn’t mumble about funding the good parts of Planned Parenthood.....(ahem)
Personally I’d rather that he and Trump would attack the Iran deal before PP
Thank you Senator Cruz. I am ashamed that this is happening in our country, and weep when I hear the unspeakable things happening to innocent unborn, and possibly born babies. This issue will tell us if there is any national conscience remaining in the US.
Not only defund it - it should be outlawed. On top of the unspeakable barbarism that goes on it’s a big transfer of taxpayer money to the rats....which is probably the reason the rats are still encouraging the butchering of babies. I actually think it couldn’t be any worse than this.
Donald had made the right decision to call for defunding PP but his base information was poor; someone misinformed him. Later he was properly informed and corrected himself. Donald’s a good egg.
OMG - go retread your knee pads.
No one had to “inform” me about late term murder. Good eggs don’t need to be informed. They know instinctively.
That is because stopping the butchering of babies and sifting through their remains and cutting out their hearts really isn’t all that bad huh?
There may be some funding needed, actually.
Like, turning the clinics into museums.
I’m thinking Memorial museums, along the lines of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau.
You’re misguided.
Trump said the abortions were brutal and needed to be defunded. What’s your problem with that? He’s pro-life!
“Personally I’d rather that he and Trump would attack the Iran deal before PP”
Really? Where have you been?
He’ll keep fighting, but this will go the way of defunding Obamacare - right down the tubes.
Maybe not. Obama had better position in late 2013 to defend his signature legislation ‘Obamacare’ especially when Americans had not yet seen the whole thing because Obama decided to skirt the law and delay certain parts of it for election reasons.
But this abortion travesty, these murders will be very hard to defend. I can’t believe that Obama’s people take the position that the videos are fake and highly edited to be unworthy of being taken seriously. That position is outright evil.
Walker didn’t need videos to get rid of funding for Planned Parenthood. Walker did this 4 years ago. I wonder if Cruz will have the same success he had with defunding Obamacare. His track record is not great. Walker’s is outstanding.
I mean I’d rathet they shut down the Iran deal as a higher priority than PP. in other words, keep the Iranian butchers from blowing us ALL up first then work on PP. And to the other guy - no I don’t condone abortion at all.
See #15.
I don’t like to see Walker’s poll numbers go down in his home state. There are too many dangerous democrats there that still need fumigation.
I know you don’t condone abortion at all. That I definitely believe. I also to a point agree with your first point stopping Iran deal which could get us all killed. I personally would hate being President.....I wouldn’t mind being dictator though at least for a month.....wow would I clean the mess up before they impeached or killed me.
I’ll text them right away, Trump and Cruz both hang on to my every word and eagerly await my daily text.
Consider it done.
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