Below are excerpts from Senator Ted Cruz's op ed published in Politico. Consider reading the entire piece as it is a powerful argument for why Republicans capitulate to everything the Obama administration desires. We can do better!
The core of this capitulation comes from Republican leadership’s promise that “There will be no government shutdown.” On its face, the promise sounds reasonable. Except in practice it means that Republicans never stand for anything . . .
Yet today, Republican leadership is unwilling to use the current “must-pass” legislation, a continuing resolution, to honor our commitments to the voters. Instead, the president knows he can send Republican leadership running for the hills by uttering a single word: “shutdown.”
If leadership is correct that we can never win against the president, why did it matter to win a Republican House? A Republican Senate? If Republican majorities in Congress will acquiesce to and affirmatively fund the identical Big Government priorities that Obama supports, then what difference does it make who is in charge of Congress?
In 2010, we were told that Republicans would stand and fight if only we had a Republican House. In 2014, we were told that Republicans would stand and fight just as soon as we won a majority in the Senate and retired Harry Reid. In both instances, the American people obliged. Now we’re told that we must wait until 2017 when we have a Republican president . . .
But, many Republicans fear, we could never win this fight. The premise of that belief is that Obama will never, ever give in, so it must be Republicans who ultimately surrender. But, if we cannot win on these issues, with the facts overwhelmingly in our favor, then what possibly can we win? Nothing? Ever? . . .
It’s worth noting, the next step—likely coming in December—is that Republican leadership intends to give in to Obama and bust the budget caps, exploding the deficit even further because if Republicans do not Obama will threaten another shutdown . . .
Thus, President Obama’s position is that, if Congress doesn’t give a half-billion dollars to a politically favored private organization currently under criminal investigation, then he will shut down the entire government. Likewise, on Iran, his position would be that he is so committed to sending over $100 billion to the Ayatollah Khamenei—which would be used by jihadists to murder Americans and Israelis, and to accelerate the Iranian development of nuclear weapons—that he will shut down the government . . .
And, notably, after President Obama forced the 2013 shutdown over Obamacare, predictions of electoral calamity proved false; instead, Republicans won a landslide victory in 2014.
When Reagan was president, there were eight partial shutdowns, including six before his historic 1984 reelection. The world didn’t end. But that’s what happens sometimes when a leader fights for his principles. The alternative—Republican leadership’s current strategy—is to surrender on everything and leave Harry Reid as the de facto leader of the Senate. We can do better.
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