Cruz: Senate Dems are Blocking Funding for Veterans, NIH, Parks, National Guard to Protect Obamacare
"These are the President's Priorities"
WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today offered four unanimous consent requests to follow the House’s lead and provide funding for veterans’ benefits, the NIH, the National Guard, and national parks. Senate Democrats blocked all four requests.
Here are quotes from his floor remarks:
“We are in a shutdown because president Obama and the Majority Leader of this body want a shutdown, because they believe it is in the partisan interests of their party to have a shutdown. Four times, the House of Representatives has compromised. Four times, the House of Representatives has endeavored to meet a middle ground, and four times the Majority Leader and every democrat in this body has said no, we will not talk, we will not compromise, we will not have a middle ground.
“We've got Republicans and Democrats in the House agreeing we should fund the VA. We have Republicans in the Senate and a Democratic President of the United States agreeing we should fund the VA. And sadly, we have Democrats in the Senate, a Majority Leader in the Senate, objecting to the VA being funded.
“If my friends on the Democratic side of the aisle simply stoop up right now and withdrew their objection, by the end of the day the VA would receive its funding.
“President Obama gave a speech to this country saying we should open our parks, open our monuments. The House of Representatives said, Mr. President, we the Republicans will work with you to do that and today the Democrats in the Senate are objecting and saying no, we want every park closed, all of that will be held hostage until Obamacare is forced on every American. I find that highly objectionable and I object.
“This bill that has passed the House doesn't mention Obamacare, has nothing to do with Obamacare. It simply says the exact same thing that my friend from Illinois already agreed to, which is that the active duty men and women of the military would not be held hostage and would be paid if it so happened that the Democrats forced a shutdown.
“Now, apparently, the position of the majority of this body is that we have got a double standard, that reserve members are not treated as well as active duty members, that reserve members will not get their paychecks, and let's be clear that this bill could be on the President's desk for signature today if my friend from Illinois would simply withdraw his objection.
“I cannot imagine a greater insult than to claim it is not the priority of members of this body to treat fairly our veterans and yet what I find so striking is that so many Democrats go out publicly and embrace that. They say funding the veterans is Cruz’s priority, not ours.
“And yet I’ll note even on that front the funding proposals that the House of Representatives has passed are not even the House's priorities, although under the Constitution they have a legitimate role laying out their priorities for funding, they are President Obama's priorities, just a few days ago the President gave a speech to this country, a speech that all of us watched closely in which the President said that if a shutdown occurred -- quote – ‘veterans who sacrificed for their country will find regard to parks as we're discussing and memorials,’ -- quote –‘tourists will find every one of the monuments to the Smithsonian to the Statue of Liberty immediately closed.’ To the credit of the House of Representatives, they listened to the President's speech and his priorities and the House of Representatives acted with bipartisan cooperation.”
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