Ted Cruz’s office has written a memo that takes aim at the “establishment politicians and members of the pundit class” that “continue to second-guess efforts to defund Obamacare” and blame the Texas senator for the government shutdown.
“The defund plan produced tangible results that create both immediate and long-term benefits for the country and the conservative cause,” the memo, which has been circulated in political circles and obtained by The Daily Caller, argues.
Here is the Cruz argument about why the defunding Obamacare effort was worth it:
First, it intensified the nation’s focus on Obamacare. Second, it energized Americans by showing there are people in Washington willing to take real action to stop Obamacare. Third, it exposed, for all to see, the Democrats’ refusal to compromise out of blind devotion to their extreme liberal agenda. Lastly, it proved the need for Republicans to unite and stand firm together in their resolve to defeat Obamacare.
Cruz’s office takes particular issue with those who blame Cruz — and not the Democrats — for the shutdown. On Monday, for example, the liberal MSNBC website asserted as fact that President Obama “is coming off a big win in the government shutdown — a 16-day fiasco where Republicans looked like they couldn’t keep the government working.”
The memo dismisses that thinking: “Despite claims made by the left, members of the media, and many other members of the DC establishment — it was Harry Reid & President Obama, not Senator Cruz & the House Republicans who forced a government shutdown.”
“President Obama is responsible for shutting down the government because he refused to negotiate with the House of Representatives to keep the government open,” the memo states. “President Obama issued 15 veto threats to bills the House of Representatives passed, with significant bipartisan support, to re-open the government and fund vital government services, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and the national parks.”