WASHINGTON — Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening was “disappointing” and “unresponsive to the real problems we’re facing,” and exhibited “one of the most disturbing” tendencies of his administration to act unilaterally.
In his speech, Obama promised a “year of action,” and said that if Congress would not cooperate with his agenda, he would do what he could to take action on his own.
“There is a pattern of lawlessness in this administration,” Cruz told reporters after the speech. “If President Obama doesn’t agree with a particular law, he simply declares he won’t enforce it, he won’t comply with it.”
“A president who is picking and choosing among the laws, refusing to follow the law, ought to be a serious concern to everyone,” Cruz said. “To Republicans, to Democrats, to independents and Libertarians.”
“If the president can pick and choose which laws to enforce, then under the Obama precedent, nothing prevents a future president from disregarding tax laws, or labor laws, or environmental laws, or tort laws, or any other law he or she disagrees with,” Cruz said. “And unlimited power in the presidency is always, always, always a threat to individual liberty.