Cruz: Establishment GOP Acted like 'Air Force Bombing Our Own Troops'

Conservative senator faults old guard for one-sided results of budget showdown.

On Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) ripped establishment Republicans for going out of their way attacking and undermining the defunding Obamacare effort and ensuring that Senate and House Republicans would never be united in order for the strategy to succeed or conservatives to gain leverage in budget negotiations. 

Though there were House Republicans–like Rep. Peter King (R-NY) on the record and a host of Representatives and their aides off the record–that never gave the defunding effort a chance from the beginning, Cruz singled out Senate Republicans for becoming the “Air Force bombing our own troops” that bombed House Republicans and conservatives repeatedly.

As a result, when the government re-opens and the debt-ceiling is raised temporarily, Americans will still be stuck with an Obamacare law Cruz has said will be the top job destroyer in America. 

Appearing on Mark Levin’s radio show, Cruz blasted the Washington establishment for not sticking up for the mother trying to feed her kids after seeing her hours cut to 29 hours a week and said that was yet another example of Washington “not listening to the American people.”

Levin emphasized that the “American people stand behind” constitutional conservatives in opposition to Obamacare, and Cruz reiterated that the party did not rally around conservatives fighting to defund the law.

Cruz said “Senate Republicans didn’t stand united” after House Republicans finally passed a short-term resolution to fund the government except for Obamacare and were “divided in half” before criticizing Republicans who went on television and radio “blasting House Republicans” and saying, “We cannot win… This will fail.”

He said when Senate Republicans are “firing their cannons at the House Republicans,” it “sabotages the effort” to defund Obamacare. 

He criticized Washington Republicans embracing “risk aversion” and being more concerned about their standing in the D.C. cocktail party circuit before pointing out that Republicans opposed to the defunding Obamacare strategy never had plans to fight Obamacare with a “middle-ground compromise” of their own. 

Cruz said their compromise was “complete” and “abject surrender” that did “noting for the American people” and gave Obama “everything he wants.”

Cruz said while House Republicans “stood strong for two weeks,” Senate Republicans “were attacking House Republicans from every venue from every front.” Those like Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Bob Corker (R-TN) relentlessly attacked Cruz during the defunding fight. 

While he and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) were fighting to defund Obamacare, Cruz always said, contrary to how he is being attacked, that it would be easier to convince Democrats in red states to support the strategy if Republicans were first united in the effort. On Wednesday, Cruz singled out Senate Republicans who did not keep their criticisms private and made a point to bombard the airwaves to attack and demean House conservatives and those like Cruz, Lee, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). Those Republicans never gave the defunding Obamacare strategy a chance to, at minimum, offer Americans some type of relief similar to what Congress and big business were getting and instead spent all their time, as Cruz said, sabotaging the effort. 

Levin noted that conservatives would be giving Cruz plenty of “air cover” going forward.