Underneath everything else going on as regards the current firestorm on Capitol Hill over a so called bi-partisan $1.1 trillion spending bill, distrust seems to be the order of the day and it’s hard to argue there isn’t good reason for it to exist.
Senate Republican leaders have pledged to challenge Obama’s immigration policy early in the new year, after the GOP takes control of the Senate. But Cruz suggested they shouldn’t be entirely trusted to keep their pledge.
“We will learn soon enough if those statements are genuine and sincere,” he said, in a clear reference to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker John Boehner.
Cruz’s point is simple and difficult to argue, “Even though millions of voters rose up just one month ago to protest how President Obama and the Senate Democrats were running Washington, business as usual is continuing inside the marble halls of the United State Congress,” he said.
And it’s not just Cruz, although the media seems to enjoy painting it at that, perhaps making it easier to cast him in a poor light. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is proving to be a strong ally. While the measure will eventually go through, positioning for battles ahead, ones in which the votes may break a bit differently, is also part of the game if one takes a longer view.
Reid attempted to postpone work until 5 pm Monday to avoid requiring Senators having to vote throughout the day on Saturday and early morning Sunday but Lee objected, citing the “grave concerns” of the American people “with the president’s decision to take action unilaterally with regard to executive amnesty.
Cruz questioned whether McConnell and Boehner are fully committed to battling Obama on immigration.
“I would note that a whole lot of citizens across the country feel a little bit like Charlie Brown with Lucy and the football, wherein fight after fight leadership in Congress says, we’ll fight next time — not this time, no, no, no. The wise thing to do is to fight in a month, fight in two months,” he said on the Senate floor.
There’s also a fair amount of distrust and consternation on the other side of he aisle, even though the media tends to paint Warren’s opposition in a far more favorable light, than Lee and Cruz’s.
Liberal star Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants a vote on amendment that would strip language repealing a key provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law restricting derivatives trading by government-insured banks.