CONGRESS Republicans shout down Cruz

Republican senators panned Ted Cruz and his conservative colleagues Wednesday as they picked up traction on their push to derail the House GOP’s plan to keep the government funded.

The high-profile Texas conservative made a splash on Wednesday in announcing his opposition to House leaders’ plans to pass an omnibus spending bill to keep the government funded through September, revisit Department of Homeland Security funding early next year and pass a proposal disapproving of Obama’s immigration policy — which the Democrat-controlled Senate will not take up.


First he joined colleagues from the Senate’s right flank and demanded both chambers take a harder line against Obama than proposed by GOP leaders. Then he joined House hard-liners at a news conference and urged Republicans to “do what you promised” in pushing back against Obama’s executive order shielding millions from deportation.

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“We should pass a short-term continuing resolution that includes language defunding the implementation of the president’s executive action on amnesty,” Cruz said on Wednesday.

But Cruz’s push, which is backed by a number of GOP senators and House members from the GOP’s right flank, is beginning to irk colleagues who still smart when reminded of last year’s government shutdown over Obamacare funding — a drama in which Cruz was a central player. And though Cruz insists he does not want a government shutdown, some of his Senate colleagues say that’s where his plan would end up.

Asked whether some Republicans are advocating a strategy that ultimately would result in a government shutdown due to Democratic opposition to any GOP bill that eliminates funding to DHS, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said “just a few are.”

“I hope everybody learned the lesson of the last time we shut down the government. If it hadn’t been for the crisis of Obamacare, it would have done much more damage than it did,” McCain said. “The overwhelming majority of us are against shutting down the government.”

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In the Senate, most members close to leadership are strong supporters of Boehner’s plan to revisit DHS funding next year when the GOP controls the Senate, which will allow more avenues to respond to Obama’s immigration action beyond just using Congress’s power of the purse.

“The challenging thing is we’re limited in the toolbox of how to show outrage without a shutdown,” said Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), a close ally of Boehner who agrees with the speaker’s plan. “What we’ve got to do is have a measured, calculated response to it. And I don’t think you can do that when you’re only limited to one avenue. We’ll be in a different situation in January.”

Added Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas: “We stand a significantly better chance of accomplishing the goal of reversing the course the president’s on when we’re in the majority.”

Last year’s push to defund Obamacare by Republicans like Cruz, Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jeff Sessions of Alabama bubbled for months before spilling into a shutdown stalemate, and most on the Hill do not yet see parallels between the two events — though one warning sign is House Republicans’ need for Democratic votes to get Boehner’s bill out of the House. GOP leaders like Boehner and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are chanting an anti-shutdown mantra as they seek to prove to be a responsible governing majority in Congress — and so are their deputies.

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“We’re a long way from that experience. You’ve heard the comments of Speaker Boehner and Sen. McConnell. And we’re just not going there, just not going there,” Cornyn said of revisiting anything similar to 2013’s shutdown fight. “That’s just not an option.”

Cruz huddled with House conservatives on Wednesday morning about Congress’ lame-duck agenda, then appeared with Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Steve King (R-Iowa) during an afternoon news conference, urging the House toward a more confrontational stance with Senate Democrats and the White House.

On Wednesday, Cruz’s office also delivered a list of quotes from Senate Democrats expressing opposition to Obama’s action to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation, urging House Republicans to force those Democrats to take a position on funding “Obama’s unilateral amnesty.”

Even those that support Boehner’s plan — and oppose Cruz’s — volunteered that he and his allies are performing an important task by training attention on Obama’s immigration action, which was announced nearly two weeks ago.

“We’re much smarter to wait," Burr said. But “it’s good that Ted and Mike Lee and others in the House, maybe others in the Senate, [Sen. David] Vitter, are raising this issue because it’s got to stay an issue that’s important. This is an outrage, not only to Republicans, but Republicans, Democrats and independents.”