Ted Cruz Responds to Thomas Sowell: 'You Have Got to Pick Some Battles to Fight'

Breitbart ^ | Breitbart TV

[SoConPubbie]

Earlier this week, conservative economist and Hoover Institution fellow Thomas Sowell made a very extraordinary statement about Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show. Regarding Cruz’s calls to use the budget process to defund ObamaCare and taking a more aggressive posture in insisting upon government spending reductions before agreeing to raise the debt ceiling, Sowell had said if George Washington has insisted upon a Cruz-like strategy during the Revolutionary War, there wouldn’t be a United States today.

On Hannity’s Wednesday show, Cruz shot back at Sowell and said that you have to take on some of these fights on occasion.

“The great Thomas Sowell – I admire and respect,” Cruz said. “Listen, I have read his works all my life and he is a fantastic thinker. And I actually agree with just about everything he says except that unfortunately congressional leadership in the Senate, you have got to pick some battles to fight. I believe in picking your battles. I don't believe we need to fight on everything. I think we need to fight on issues that matter. There have been two significant battles that I think we really should have fought on that I tried to fight on as much as possible." 

"They were number one, ObamaCare, the most disastrous law hurting millions across this country," he continued. "And number two, the debt ceiling, because we're bankrupting our kids and grandkids. And he said -- Mr. Sowell said you should fight on fights we can win. I agree and if Republicans had stood on the debt ceiling -- we had the votes to insist on meaningful spending reforms. And in fact, just a few years ago, Congress used the debt ceiling to get the Budget Control Act and we did that with "

[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[SoConPubbie]

Ted Cruz Ping!

If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.

Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!

[left that other site]

Ted’s response was respectful, appropriate, and inspiring.

There are some battles that MUST be fought.

[svcw]

I have tremendous respect and admiration for both men
Still I do not always agree

[napscoordinator]

Ted Cruz certainly didn’t take up the Arizona battle that is for sure. I still think he is a big time state’s right type which is why he left Arizona alone. I mentioned that on another thread last night and was criticized for it saying that state rights are for the positives and if is a negative state’s right we can fight for it nation wide. Not sure if that is what the founders had in mind when they were writing about state’s rights.

[12th_Monkey]

add me to the Cruz ping list

[MNGal]

“Ted’s response was respectful, appropriate, and inspiring.

There are some battles that MUST be fought.”

I am very glad to see Cruz respond to Sowell’s criticisms in this way.

[left that other site]

Indeed.

My answer, sorry to say, would have been somewhat less respectful, because I feel so BETRAYED by Dr. Sowell, someone I have admired for many years.

Ted is a Real MENSCH.

[FR_addict]

I am more surprised at Thomas Sowell. When will it be time. We are losing our freedoms and our way of life very quickly now.

We have to stop this madness.

[Steely Tom]

Senator Cruz is to be lauded for bringing attention to Thomas Sowell, an authentic social scientist and one of Americas greatest minds.

[Servant of the Cross]

I admire both men greatly. With this response by Ted Cruz, I pray that Dr. Sowell will do some soul-searching and revise and extend his original comments regarding Senator Cruz and his strategy of picking some battles.

These guys are on the same side! The only question is of strategy and tactics. And Ted Cruz is right!

And the Conventional Wisdom that "shutting down the government" was 1) the GOPs "fault" and 2) a terrible thing couldn't be MORE WRONG! Fight this issue rather than run from it!

[trisham]

Cruz is remarkably restrained in his response.

[Clarence]

Dr. Sowell is a great thinker and writer, with the ability to see things so very clearly and communicate that to others.

Sen. Cruz is a man of action.

Therein lies the difference, not in philosophy, but in willingness to act upon those beliefs.

[Atlas Sneezed]

I like the idea of having a leader of the GOP and of America who can make his case so effectively even against the most well-armed opponent, while be genuinely respectful of his opponent and not coming off as a bully.

The Feinstein smackdown is another example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYI3MEhegvQ

[SharpRightTurn]

Cruz is right, Sowell is wrong.

No more surrenders.

[ConservativeDude]

That youtube link is excellent.

Everyone should watch it.

Feinstein nearly cries....what a bimbo.

[plain talk]

” I don’t believe we need to fight on everything. “

I do. There is almost nothing the dems put forward I agree with.

[PAR]

The day before this site is shut down by the democratic fascists, the purists on this site will still be raging against the GOPe. Half of them will be trolls and half of them won’t know what hit them. Sowell has a much longer track record of being right than Ted Cruz.

[cuban leaf]

Like Ted, this is pretty much the first time I’ve ever disagreed with Sowell, and for the exact same reasons Ted gave.

I’m reminded of the weird father in Strictly Ballroom. At the end of the movie you realize what happened way back when. His wife caved to pressure from the side that really didn’t have all that much power, and without her, he lost. But if she had stuck with him, they would have won big.

I see the current situation similarly. This is a battle that MUST be fought. And the good news is that the other side is losing power daily, as more people see what is going on with ZeroCare.

We actually CAN win this one. Compromise is inapropriate this time.

[rockinqsranch]

PING to jazusamo.