NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland–On Friday, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) addressed the CPAC conference at the Gaylord Resort on the Potomac River. Cornyn asserted that Texas proves “conservative policies do lead to growth and prosperity, compared to the failed experiment of big government during the last five years under President Obama.”
Cornyn’s main thrust was the importance of accountability in our government. The Texas senator believes that the Obama administration has abandoned accountability to a “shocking” degree. Historically, some of America’s greatest leaders derived their success by being accountable for their actions, the senator reminded the audience, from George Washington “who couldn’t tell a lie” to one of the founders of the Republican party who was known as “honest Abe.” Cornyn emphasized that the “entire experiment in self government” depends on accountability. The Texas Republican quoted Thomas Paine, who said, “a body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not be trusted by anybody.”
According to Cornyn, “unaccountability has always been the refuge of autocrats, scandal makers, and stubbornly bad government policy.” He said that for the last five years – “five long years” – under the Obama administration, accountability has been jettisoned and replaced by cover ups and misrepresentations. Cornyn reminded the audience, when Eric Holder’s justice department had knowingly allowed weapons to be smuggled into the hands of Mexican cartel members, “Did we get accountability?” The enthusiastic audience answered in unison, “No!” The refrain of “no” continued throughout the segment as Cornyn continued to ask questions designed to reveal Obama’s failure of accountability. “When one of those weapons showed up at the murder scene of border patrol agent Brian Terry, I’ll ask you, did we get accountability?”
Cornyn continued his attack on the President. He recounted Obama’s failures of accountability, citing the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi and the IRS scandal which targeted conservative non-profit groups. “And then, of course, there is Obamacare. Where do we even begin?” he asked. He targeted the website failures of HealthCare.gov, which Americans were forced to use because of government-mandated healthcare. Cornyn asserted that we did not get accountability, “we were told the errors were great problems to have.” Moreover, Cornyn pointed out that the navigators who were hired to help assist enrollees did not undergo criminal background checks. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “told me herself that convicted felons could be hired as navigators,” Cornyn claimed.
According to Cornyn, Republicans predicted that higher premiums would prevail and that a multitude of problems would come to fruition if we as a nation adopted a national healthcare system. The senator argued that we have gotten no accountability from Obama and the Democrats, “but instead we have gotten waivers and delays and minced words over exactly what the president meant when he said if you like what you have you can keep it.”
Senator Cornyn posits that the future of our great country will be determined by a “new era of accountability, and conservatives must lead in this new culture of accountability.” The way to achieve this new era of accountability is to maintain the House of Representatives and “take back the Senate.” From there Cornyn hopes that Republicans will take back the White House in 2016.