TED CRUZ ONLY CARES ABOUT POLITICAL CAREER
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THE WOODWARD REPORT
By: Brian Woodward
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Ted Cruz
As I intermittently listened to Senator Ted Cruz’s filibuster, or more correctly, his elongated speech, I heard all the arguments that have been trotted out before. He is right that this monstrosity of the Affordable Care Act will be incredibly burdensome on society. However, this is not about ideas it's about tactics. It is tiresome to hear politicos and pundits act as if the defunding of the bill is feasible.
Senator Cruz knows that he cannot win and in waging this campaign he will needlessly incite increased division within the Republican party. He is a man who clearly has ambitions for the Presidency just eight months into his Senate term. He saw how Rand Paul became a star when he filibustered over the usage of drones. This was a calculated Machiavellian move by Cruz to become a face of the Republican senate and party. It is not that there is anything wrong with this message but the house of representatives has passed resolutions repealing part or all of Obamacare over 40 times. Why is it now that he has chosen to take up the House’s cause and push for a continuing resolution to fund all parts of the government except for Obamacare?
Strategically as a person seeking political power it is probably a solid move on the Senator’s part. However, how often do politicians deliver on big promises? The answer is rarely. By taking the senate floor and reading from Dr. Seuss as he did, he screamed out to the nation “look at me”. He asserted his piety and love for liberty and law while he conducted a futile exercise in effecting policy, but most likely a profitable one in terms of gaining celebrity.
Politicians are some of the most narcissistic people one will ever encounter. It is part of the job description: “Think and act like you are important and others will perceive that you are”.
If you want to help the American people, and if you want to enrich and better the lives of your constituents do not waste their tax dollars and resources on a doomed plan. Obamacare may be a travesty but wasting time trying to defund it when there is no, and I mean absolutely zero possibility that this would ever be signed into law, is wasteful and irresponsible.
I hope that our elected officials will start to pour their efforts and energy towards legislation that is pragmatic. This showmanship and posturing from the junior senator from Texas is ill conceived and ultimately detrimental to the Republican party. Ted Cruz does not care about Obamacare, it does not affect him. He cares about advancing his political career, and he seized the opportunity. Can we really blame him?
Comments
To start with, Roberts was in a box. Justice Kennedy is known for always voting with the liberals when it matters, and he was counting on being the swing vote that would declare all of Obamacare constitutional. Roberts could not beat that 5-4 majority.
But as Chief Justice, one of the few authorities he has is to determine *who* writes the majority opinion, but only if he is in the majority. So instead of voting against Obamacare and losing; he voted for Obamacare and wrote the opinion.
And this resulted in a home run for conservatives, though few realized it at the time. Because Roberts said that Obamacare was constitutional *as a tax*, *not* as a mandate.
Leftists in the US pushed through FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society as mandates, which meant that once passed, they could just defend it against Republican attacks, an easy job, because Republicans would need a 2/3rds majority in both houses of congress to defeat it.
However, *taxes* have special rules in the constitution. They *always* require only a *simple majority* in congress to change, create or destroy. This means that instead of the insurmountable 2/3rds majority, Republicans only need simple majorities in both houses of congress, *and* the president’s signature, to strip ALL taxation from Obamacare.
And thus kill it.
That was the hard part, for which John Roberts gets all the credit.
But what about Ted Cruz? Conservatives are becoming a very powerful block in the house, and will likely soon take over the leadership as well. But the senate is a much harder nut to crack.
The Tea Party has done exactly the right thing in the senate by targeting the RINOs. Because the RINOs have done more to defeat conservative legislation than the Democrats. They must be purged, in the long run. But in the short term they must “have their feet held to the fire”, politically, with the idea of ending Obamacare.
If scoundrels like McCain and Graham have their way, the US would forever continue to be harmed by Obamacare. But each election there are now fewer and fewer RINOs. If the rest of the Republicans in the senate are forced to, they likely will come on board to eliminate Obamacare.