Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) failed miserably last year in his attempt to stop ObamaCare by forcing a government shutdown. And Republican lawmakers have voted 50 times now, all to no avail, to repeal the law. But now, Cruz claims the GOP could still totally repeal the law — while President Obama is in office, no less — via a wildly fantastical scenario in which Democrats have a sudden change of heart and turn on the president.
Here's what Cruz told Jonathan Karl Sunday on ABC's This Week:
If there's one thing that unifies politicians of both parties, you know, their top priority is preserving their own hide. And if enough Congressional Democrats realize they either stand with ObamaCare and lose, or they listen to the American people and have a chance at staying in office, that's the one scenario we could do it in 2015. If not, we'll do it in 2017. […] Washington isn't listening to those people. That's how we win elections and that's also how we repeal ObamaCare.
An incredulous Karl asked Cruz if he really believed Congress could overturn the whole law while Obama was president, to which Cruz replied, "Every single word."
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Cruz is either delusional or willfully obfuscating the truth on the matter. Poll after poll has shown that while voters don't particularly like ObamaCare, they don't support repealing it either. And Democratic lawmakers have shown no indication they would ever get behind the GOP's repeal efforts; just a few months ago, they locked arms amid the government shutdown and forced the GOP to back down.
Moreover, Cruz is being a little hypocritical in saying repeal is still even an option at this point. In pushing for the self-serving government shutdown last year, he repeatedly warned that the law could not be stopped after January 1. Of course, Cruz has strong financial and personal-branding incentives to beat the repeal drum, so don't expect him to move on any time soon.
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