Cruz: Republicans can win shutdown fight

“If Republican leadership actually tried to win, we would vote on one bill after another funding specific parts of the federal government,” the Texas Republican wrote in a Politico op-ed Wednesday. “After President Obama forced the 2013 shutdown over Obamacare, predictions of electoral calamity proved false; instead, Republicans won a landslide victory in 2014.”

{mosads}Cruz, who is running for president, wants to use a government spending bill to defund Planned Parenthood in the wake of a series of controversial videos. He’s also urged his colleagues to promise to vote no on a short-term spending bill that funds the organization, though he sidestepped a question this week about if his colleagues had signed onto his letter. 

A procedural vote on Thursday to move forward with a spending bill that defunds Planned Parenthood is expected to fail to get the 60 votes needed. After that, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expected to tee up a “clean” spending bill, though he’s remained tightlipped about his plans. 

Cruz suggested the government spending fight is the latest example of Republican leadership responding “to every challenge by surrendering at the outset.” 

“The core of this capitulation comes from Republican leadership’s promise that ‘There will be no government shutdown,'” he added. “On its face, the promise sounds reasonable. Except, in practice, it means that Republicans never stand for anything.” 

Wednesday’s op-ed is by no means the first time Cruz has publicly criticized McConnell’s strategy in the battle over Planned Parenthood and how to avert a potential government shutdown ahead of an end-of-the-month deadline. 

He said Tuesday that “the position of Republican leadership boils down to this: They will support 100 percent of the priorities of Democrats.” 

Cruz suggested that there’s a separate path where Republicans “actually do what we said we would do,” and if Obama — whom he compares to the Terminator in relentlessness — upholds his pledge to veto a spending bill that defunds Planned Parenthood, “we should force him to defend that radical position.” 

Congress has until Oct. 1 to pass a government spending bill, but Cruz’s rhetoric is already drawing criticism from his Senate Republican colleagues. 

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), who voted earlier this year to move forward with legislation to defund Planned Parenthood, said Tuesday that she’s “tired of the people on my side of the aisle who have been pushing this strategy.”