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Ted Cruz Responds to Thomas Sowell: 'You Have Got to Pick Some Battles to Fight'
Breitbart ^ | Breitbart TV

Posted on 02/27/2014 5:42:15 AM PST by SoConPubbie

Earlier this week, conservative economist and Hoover Institution fellow Thomas Sowell made a very extraordinary statement about Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show. Regarding Cruz’s calls to use the budget process to defund ObamaCare and taking a more aggressive posture in insisting upon government spending reductions before agreeing to raise the debt ceiling, Sowell had said if George Washington has insisted upon a Cruz-like strategy during the Revolutionary War, there wouldn’t be a United States today.

On Hannity’s Wednesday show, Cruz shot back at Sowell and said that you have to take on some of these fights on occasion.

“The great Thomas Sowell – I admire and respect,” Cruz said. “Listen, I have read his works all my life and he is a fantastic thinker. And I actually agree with just about everything he says except that unfortunately congressional leadership in the Senate, you have got to pick some battles to fight. I believe in picking your battles. I don't believe we need to fight on everything. I think we need to fight on issues that matter. There have been two significant battles that I think we really should have fought on that I tried to fight on as much as possible." 

"They were number one, ObamaCare, the most disastrous law hurting millions across this country," he continued. "And number two, the debt ceiling, because we're bankrupting our kids and grandkids. And he said -- Mr. Sowell said you should fight on fights we can win. I agree and if Republicans had stood on the debt ceiling -- we had the votes to insist on meaningful spending reforms. And in fact, just a few years ago, Congress used the debt ceiling to get the Budget Control Act and we did that with "

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cruz; sowell; tedcruz
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To: PAR

I honestly don’t think it matters one way or the other. It’s too late. Seriously.

At least, that is my take. The problem is that NONE of the fixes can be voluntarily implemented. I used to use this analogy back in the late 1970’s: The US is like the proverbial farmer that has his hand caught in a piece of machinery that is slowly dragging him in. He will only survive by cutting off his arm. However, nobody has the political will to cut off the arm - nor would they survive politically (look at what is happening to Cruz).

And back then we would have only had to lose a hand. It’s past the shoulder now.

I don’t expect us to survive Obama - or obamacare.


41 posted on 02/27/2014 7:51:20 AM PST by cuban leaf
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To: left that other site

I am so sick of betrayal, and Dr. Sowell was the final straw! I don’t trust anybody anymore.


For me, It just makes me sick regarding Michael Medved. I see him now as just a “smart” Bill O’Reiley, whom I have no respect for whatsoever.


42 posted on 02/27/2014 7:53:27 AM PST by cuban leaf
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To: FR_addict

I think it does matter how bad Obamacare is because real people who don’t ordinarily follow politics are being negatively impacted by it in a very big way. Not even the lying media can save their sorry asses on Obamacare, regardless Obama’s lawlessness in making changes to it. This is why it is so important to keep the focus on Obamacare to the extent possible and why the democrats are attempting to create a distraction with “income inequality” and would love any fight that conservatives might want to pick right now.

In my opinion all of these other issues are very difficult for conservatives to win on a regular basis. The media will continue to lie and the general ignorance of the population will allow their lies to succeed.


43 posted on 02/27/2014 8:00:44 AM PST by PAR
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To: cuban leaf

Unfortunately I’m leaning in that direction as well. It’s not looking good for my children’s future right now.


44 posted on 02/27/2014 8:03:18 AM PST by PAR
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To: cuban leaf

Yes...

It was particularly shocking for me with Thomas Sowell.

I was on the ping list, and avidly read his articles almost daily.

I had begun reading his Ted Cruz article with the same confidence and admiration, and as I read, i got more and more distressed until I had to stop reading and ask to be removed from the Sowell ping list. I was devastated.


45 posted on 02/27/2014 8:10:01 AM PST by left that other site
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To: 12th_Monkey

You’ve been Added!


46 posted on 02/27/2014 8:13:11 AM PST by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: cuban leaf

And that destruction provided a rallying cry for the warrior class. I see Sarah Palin as the 300 and the tea party led by Cruz as the Greek army, going against the army of the Libs and the corrupt “allies” waiting to stab them in the back.


47 posted on 02/27/2014 8:37:40 AM PST by chae (I was anti-Obama before it was cool)
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To: Graewoulf

Very interesting....

You said,

* If the assumption is made that both Sowell and Cruz are afflicted with the same RINO terminal disease of fighting only the fights that can be won with no risk, then Cruz in no better than any other loser, obsolete RINO.

* If Senator Cruz does not place a higher value on fighting battles with overwhelming odds that favor the enemy, then his only choice is to cede the field of battle to the enemies of the US Constitution, as the Congressional RINOs have done for the last five years.”

IMHO, Americans do not honor “heroes” whose “successes” are defined by their suicidal strategies.


48 posted on 02/27/2014 8:50:58 AM PST by pfony1 (Add just 6 GOP Senators and we "bury" Harry)
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To: rockinqsranch

Thanks for the ping, rqsr. A most respectful and correct reply to Dr. Sowell by Ted Cruz.


49 posted on 02/27/2014 8:54:25 AM PST by jazusamo ([Obama] A Truly Great Phony -- Thomas Sowell http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3058949/posts)
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To: pfony1

” - - - Americans do not honor “heroes” whose “successes” are defined by their suicidal strategies. - - - - “

If suicide is defined as self- inflicted death, then the Congressional RINOs have been committing suicide for the last 5 years.

The RINO suicidal strategy has not make them heroes in YHO or MHO.


50 posted on 02/27/2014 9:01:17 AM PST by Graewoulf (Democrats' Obamacare Socialist Health Insur. Tax violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
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To: Graewoulf

“... cede the field of battle to the enemies of the US Constitution ...”
-
Exactly the same as your dumbass “leave their slots blank on the ballot” strategy.

Don’t ping me, bro.


51 posted on 02/27/2014 9:08:15 AM PST by Repeal The 17th (We have met the enemy and he is us.)
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To: PAR
I talk to Obama supporters and they can't wait to see it updated to a single payer system.

RomneyCare was not much better than ObamaCare. In fact, I have to agree with Obama, RomneyCare was the precursor. Look what the Massachusetts Health Care system is doing to that family with the 15 year old. They are taking the rights away from the family and giving it to the state.

So many people have lost their jobs because of Obama’s economic policies and he still got re-elected, why do you think HealthCare is going to make a difference? You don't even hear Republicans talk about repealing it anymore. They just say, we need to fix it.

52 posted on 02/27/2014 9:50:32 AM PST by FR_addict
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To: left that other site

I’ve rarely read any of Sowell’s articles, but I was still shocked at what he’s said about Cruz.


53 posted on 02/27/2014 9:55:39 AM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: cuban leaf

Doolittle’s raid on Japan comes to mind. Its non-military successes were very real and changed the tone of the war yet to come.


Well, yes, but there was a coherent plan with the aftermath and recovery worked out with allies ahead of time. They didn’t just send them off and hope for the best.

In the case of the shutdown, neither the Republican House nor Senate could even agree on what was going on, much less whether they supported it.


54 posted on 02/27/2014 11:25:17 AM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: lepton

In the case of the shutdown, neither the Republican House nor Senate could even agree on what was going on, much less whether they supported it.


I’m really talking about the long term effect rather than the plan to protect the fate of those involved. The benefits of the Doolittle raid were not as easy to pin down as the destruction of a factory because of the type of benefit received (public opinion and perception) over the long run.

Same with Cruz, and the “long run” has just begun.


55 posted on 02/27/2014 11:34:11 AM PST by cuban leaf
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To: cuban leaf

I think even Dr. Sowell agrees that the long term battle needs to be fought. It’s the picking a fight at a point and in a manner that harms the long term goal that is at issue. It’d be like conducting the Doolittle raids before Midway...when the planes wouldn’t even make it to Japan.


56 posted on 02/27/2014 11:41:11 AM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: SoConPubbie

Thanks for the ping!!


57 posted on 02/27/2014 11:58:39 AM PST by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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To: lepton; cuban leaf
I think even Dr. Sowell agrees that the long term battle needs to be fought. It’s the picking a fight at a point and in a manner that harms the long term goal that is at issue. It’d be like conducting the Doolittle raids before Midway...when the planes wouldn’t even make it to Japan.

The approach is misguided and signals cowardice and weakness to the enemy.

Factor in how the approach is being implemented by members of the GOP-E in a very deceptive manner of voting for cloture and then voting against the bill, basically lying, and once the base gets a whiff of this chicanery, which they have, the GOP-E is toast.

This is the right battle at the right time.

Dr. Sowell was just plain wrong.
58 posted on 02/27/2014 12:06:23 PM PST by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: PAR
The day before this site is shut down by the democratic fascists, the purists on this site ...

WHAT "purists"?

In my nearly 12 years on Free Republic, I have never ONCE come across a purist. NOT ONCE. However, I have come across many liberals registered as Republicans who accuse philosophical Republicans of being "purists" when they refuse to vote for the functional liberal Democrats that liberals-registered-as-Republicans advocate.

PURISTS are a figment of your imagination, PAR.

As long as you strategize and argue using imaginary, false concepts such as "purists" and the semantic fallacy of "voting against," you will get the same results as hunters on a unicorn safari: failure.

59 posted on 02/27/2014 12:06:48 PM PST by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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To: SoConPubbie
Sometimes a battle has to be fought just to remind others that you still have the fight in you, otherwise your threats will ring hollow and nobody will take you seriously anymore.

-PJ

60 posted on 02/27/2014 12:13:51 PM PST by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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