Cruz Attacks GOP Senate Leadership: McConnell ‘Very Effective Democratic Leader’
Kate Scanlon /
In a speech Thursday on the Senate floor, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, sharply criticized the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, a budget deal between former House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama.
Cruz said the deal is yet another example of the failure of the “so-called Republican majority” to deliver on their promises to the American people.
“Now, if someone is an effective Democratic leader, you would expect them to be able to pass legislation when a majority of Democrats supported it and a majority of Republicans opposed it,” Cruz said. “Indeed, if you’re a partisan Democrat, that would be almost the definition of an effective Democratic leader.”
“Nineteen times in the last ten months this so-called Republican majority has passed legislation, has had a vote succeed where a majority of Democrats supported it and a majority of Republicans opposed it,” Cruz added.
Cruz said that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., “has proven to be a very effective Democratic leader.”
“Is this not a curious state of affairs? Why is a Republican majority leader fighting to accomplish the priorities of the Democratic minority?”
Cruz said that while Sen. Harry Reid, D- Nev., was senate majority leader, a “flawed” budget agreement was negotiated that “increased spending by $63 billion over two years.”
“What does it say to you that a supposedly Republican majority of the United States Senate negotiates a bigger spending bill than Harry Reid and the Democrats?” Cruz asked.
The budget deal “was not cooked up overnight,” Cruz argued.
“This wasn’t a slapdash on a post-it note last night,” Cruz said. “This represents days or weeks or months of negotiations. This represents the [Washington] cartel in all of its glory because this is the combined work product of John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid.”
“The entire time Republican leaders have been promising, ‘We’re going to do something on the budget. We’re going to rein in the president,’ they have been in the back room negotiating to fund every single thing Obama did,” he said.