Posted on 09/11/2014 1:37:45 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz made several predictions during his legislative update at the University of Houston’s Sugar Land campus last week. But the perhaps the biggest made by the famously polarizing junior senator from Texas was that this fall’s election cycle will see the GOP regain control of the Senate from the Democratic Party for the first time since 2006.
“I believe in November of this year, Republicans are going to retake the Senate and retire [U.S. Senator] Harry Reid as majority leader,” Cruz said to applause before a rapt crowd of around 60 supporters on Sept. 3. “I am devoting a great deal of my time between now and election day to traveling to key battle ground states all across this country to encourage people to come out, to stand up and to retake the U.S. Senate. We’ve got an historic … incredible opportunity to do so.”
Over the course of his hour-long talk, Cruz vociferously criticized what he characterized as “a pattern of lawlessness” on the part of President Barack Obama’s administration – particularly the Affordable Care Act (the AFA, better known as “Obamacare”) and last year’s IRS controversy, where it was found the agency discriminated against various, mostly conservative, political groups seeking tax-exempt status.
But aside from the president himself, the political figure to bear the brunt Cruz’ harshest criticism was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Cruz accused the longtime Nevadan senator of using “absolute, dictatorial control” to prevent the Senate from voting on over 350 pieces of legislation, previously passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
“The single biggest impediment we have to Congress meaningfully restraining this administration is Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats,” Cruz said. “Harry Reid is Barack Obama’s enabler.”
Cruz also took the administration to task for its foreign policy, especially in regards to Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Cruz referred to as a “petro-tyrant” and “KGB thug” who is attempting to “slowly, systematically reassemble as much of the old Soviet Union as possible.”
But the former U.S.S.R. was hardly the only historical allusion made by Cruz.
“I think [the state of the country] right now is eerily like the late 1970s,” Cruz said. “I think the parallels between President Obama and Jimmy Carter are uncanny. The same failed economic policies, out-of-control spending, taxes [and] regulation – they don’t work. And it produced the exact same economic misery and stagnation and malaise. And it’s the same feckless and naïve foreign policy [that] makes the world a much, much more dangerous place and leaves Russia and China and Iran laughing and mocking the president.”
Cruz pointed out that legislation is still subject to the possibility of a congressional filibuster or presidential veto. But in the event that Cruz’ prediction of a Republican Senate becomes manifest this November, Cruz cited three pieces of legislation in particular to be voted on by the Senate:
• Approval of the Keystone Pipeline (“There is one reason and one reason only the Keystone Pipeline has not begun construction, and that is Harry Reid will not allow a vote,” Cruz said.)
• The repeal of the AFA’s medical device tax (“The only reason that hasn’t happened [is] Harry Reid won’t allow it.”)
• Legislation for harsher sanctions against Iran crafted by Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) (“There is one reason and one reason only that Kirk-Menendez has not passed into law, and that is Harry Reid.”)
As the Tea Party-backed senator has continued to rise in popularity since winning the Republican primary for the senator’s race over Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst – a victory the Washington Post trumpeted as “the biggest upset of 2012” – many pundits have speculated on the possibility of Cruz throwing his hat into next year’s presidential election.
Cruz made no mentions of any presidential ambitions before or after his speech. He noted, however, that a Republican in the Oval Office is just as necessary as a majority-GOP Senate in forwarding the party’s agenda.
“Even with a Republican Senate, it is going to prove very difficult to see real leadership on foreign policy,” Cruz said. “Because there is one person and one person only on this planet who has the constitutional authority to order troops into battle, who has the constitutional authority to lead this country – and that is the president.”
Sen. Cruz can start working on his 2016 run once the Republicans take the Senate.
I don’t think he needs your permission.
/johnny
Too late “Johnny”, I already gave it to him.
No journalistic bias there! /s
So what? They will still cave in to the Dems, especially RINO’s.
Nothing will change
U of H has a Sugar Land campus now? That’s solid Republican dominated out there.
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