In an obnoxious quest to out “maverick” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is now urging conservative voters to hold Republicans “accountable” for caving and derailing efforts to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), reports TalkingPointsMemo.com.
RELATED: Sen. John McCain To Fox News: GOP To Blame For Gov’t Shutdown [VIDEO]
During an interview with National Review’s Robert Costa published Saturday, Cruz lamented the “significant number” of Senate Republicans, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), who “actively, aggressively, and vocally led the effort to defeat House Republicans.”
“Once Senate Republicans did that, it crippled the chances of this effort, and it caused the lousy deal.” he told Costa.
Continuing on his “fool’s errand,” Cruz sent a sublimal shot to McCain, insinuating that his statement in opposition of holding the government ransom to defund Obamacare would never work:
“As with every decision elected officials make, the consequences of those decisions are up to the American people,” Cruz said. “But I will say this: from day one in office, I’ve urged the American people to hold every elected official accountable, and far too many elected officials are not listening to the American people… when you’ve got 10 to 20 Senate Republicans going on television, day after day after day, saying, ‘we cannot win, this is a fool’s errand, we will lose, nothing will happen, we will surrender,’ and blaming Republicans every step of the way, it eliminates the ability to get a positive outcome.”
As previously reported by NewsOne, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee criticized President Barack Obama for not negotiating with House Republicans on reinstating death benefits to military families, instead accepting an offer from The Fisher House Foundation “to provide the families of the fallen with the benefits they so richly deserve,” said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement.
Though the Pentagon will reimburse the foundation, McCain admitted that it would have never gotten to that point if the GOP hadn’t been holding the nation hostage and demanding the defunding of Obamacare as ransom:
“Let’s have a little straight talk, Martha,” McCain said to FOX News’ Martha MacCallum. “[The administration] wouldn’t have had the opportunity to handle it that way if we had not shut down the government on a fool’s errand that we were not going to accomplish. The whole premise of shutting down the government was the repeal of Obamacare. I fought against Obamacare harder than any of the people who wanted to shut down the government.”
RELATED: Charity To Pay Military Death Benefits
Though McCain believes that Republicans have some political leverage for negotiations and, potentially, some attainable goals, he insisted that “defunding Obamacare is not one of them.”
McCain also made it very clear that Cruz, who was even told by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, to “show a little restraint,” does not speak for the Republican Party.
Watch McCain’s remarks below via Talking Points Memo:
Cruz is not alone in his “fool’s errand,” though. According to TPM, Republicans who supported the fiscal deal will face Tea-Party challengers in the 2014 primaries.
Read more at TPM.
