Sen. Ted Cruz is excoriating the Republican leadership in the House and Senate for failing to “lift a finger to defend life” by eliminating taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. Cruz’s speech on the Senate floor comes as the lawmakers voted, 77-19, to advance a bill to authorize government spending that includes funding for Planned Parenthood.
The 2016 Republican contender attempted to submit an amendment that would “restrict the use of Federal funds for Planned Parenthood Federation of America” as well as those to “implement the nuclear agreement with Iran or for assessed contributions to the United Nations until the President submits the agreement and all related materials to Congress.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, “filled the tree” of amendments on this bill to fund the government, preventing any other senators from offering amendments to change the measure, a tactic used on numerous occasions by Sen. Harry Reid when he was the Majority Leader. The strategy would prevent any amendments to bills and keep Reid’s Democrat members from having to be on record for difficult votes.
Cruz’s motion on Monday night was to “table” the “filled amendment tree,” to set it aside in order to make room for his amendment that would both defund Planned Parenthood as well as the Iran deal.
Though normally the Senate would take a recorded vote on such a question, in this case McConnell prevented Cruz from getting enough senators to “second” his request and call for a recorded vote to set aside the amendment tree and make room for Cruz’s amendment. This tactic sets up a proxy vote in that anyone not seconding Cruz’s request is saying he or she does not want a recorded vote on the question of defunding Planned Parenthood and the Iran deal.
With no recorded vote, a voice vote was taken on the issue, and any senators who voiced “no” were also essentially voting against defunding Planned Parenthood and the Iran deal.
Cruz fully represented in his floor speech what conservatives now see as a circus of sorts in the legislative branch run by Republican leaders.
We are about to “fund 100 percent of Planned Parenthood with taxpayer funding,” Cruz stormed, an organization under “multiple criminal investigations.”
“President Obama is absolutely committed to his objectives, and says if you don’t fund this organization, I will veto your bill and shut down the government,” Cruz fumed. “And Republican leadership surrenders: ‘We will fund Planned Parenthood.’”
Cruz charged that Obama “just has to utter word ‘shutdown’ and Republicans run to the hills.” The senator proceeded to review the similar scenarios that occurred with Obamacare, Obama’s executive amnesty, and the Iran deal.
“Republican leadership simply says, ‘OK’” to Obama, Cruz said.
Cruz observed the series of videos that were recently released about Planned Parenthood, exposing the abortion business’s practice of harvesting the body parts of aborted babies for sale on the open market.
Many people have chosen not to view the videos, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and many other Democrat lawmakers, but Cruz went on to say that many Americans in general have not seen them because the liberal mainstream media has blocked them to a large extent.
“I encourage every American to watch these videos,” he said, urging Americans, “Ask yourself, are these my values? “Is this what I believe?”
Cruz described in detail the senior Planned Parenthood officials “laughing, sipping chardonnay” while discussing the sale of the body parts of unborn children. “One says she hopes she sells enough to buy herself a Lamborghini,” he said, and then told the story of the StemExpress technician who was instructed to cut through the face of a baby whose heart was still beating in order to harvest its brain.
“We are now a nation that harvests the body parts of baby boys and girls,” he asserted, adding that the United States now accepts that children are “sold for profit.”
Cruz said it is likely that Planned Parenthood has committed multiple crimes that are punishable with imprisonment, yet asked why the Obama Department of Justice and FBI have failed to open investigations into the abortion organization.
Similarly, he observed that not one Democrat has asked to have Planned Parenthood investigated.
“That is because Planned Parenthood has become nothing more than an arm of the Democrat Party,” he said.
Despite all that has been exposed about Planned Parenthood, Cruz said, “You notice how much energy Majority Leader McConnell and Speaker Boehner have devoted to attacking conservatives? When has leadership shown that level of venom to President Obama?”
Cruz said that, in fact, Reid and the Democrats often laugh because the Republicans generally lead the onslaught against conservatives, dismissing them as “ignorant hicks and rubes.”
“Why, then, does it matter if we have a Republican or Democrat House or Senate?” Cruz asked, adding that Boehner’s recent decision to resign was a direct manifestation of the “disconnect” between the base of the Republican Party and its leadership.
“A very large percentage of Republican donors actually despise our base,” he said, observing that the people they despise are the very ones who won them their majorities. Cruz said Republican donors are pro-choice and also desire same-sex marriage and amnesty.
“The show vote to defund Planned Parenthood was designed to lose,” he stated solemnly, noting that leadership has no interest in a vote that could actually change policy.