Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) says that Republicans are working to defund and repeal President Barack Obama’s health care reform law in order to help African-Americans and Hispanics.

In an interview with CNN that aired on Sunday, Cruz told host Candy Crowley that he was “not convinced” that the president would continue to refuse to repeal his signature legislation if Republicans forced a government shutdown.

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The Texas Republican admitted that he did not yet have the votes to shut down the government, but he didn’t expect the fight to heat up until September.

“It’s going to take a tsunami, and I’m going to do everything I can to encourage that tsunami,” he explained.

“But what about, you lost?” Crowley asked. “This has been put into law. It’s already law. Why not just get on board and try it?”

“Because it’s not working and it’s hurting Americans,” Cruz insisted. “And by the way, the people that it’s hurting the most are the most vulnerable among us are the more vulnerable among us. The people who are losing their jobs are young people, are Hispanics, are African-Americans, are single moms. I don’t think that’s fair, I don’t think that’s right.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 500,000 young African-Americans and 913,000 Latinos have already benefited from Obamacare because they have been allowed to stay on their parents’ health care plans. Additionally, 6.8 million African-Americans and 10.8 million Latinos will have opportunities to buy coverage through health care exchanges.

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Watch this video from CNN’s State of the Union, broadcast Aug. 25, 2013.