Reminiscent of the classic 1939 Frank Capra movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ted Cruz’s recent actions are as controversial as actor James Stewart’s portrayal originally was with many U.S. Senators. The movie, and Stewart, were heavily criticized for making “the Senate look like a bunch of crooks,” said then Senate Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley.
Barkley, a Democrat, went to a special screening of the motion picture, but came out furious, calling it “silly and stupid.” Some senators left early. Most of the news press followed suit. The film ultimately resonated with movie goers and turned out to be the #2 box office hit of the year (Behind Gone With the Wind, but ahead of The Wizard of Oz). James Stewart became a beloved American movie star.
Fast forward 76 years later, about the same length of time it takes Halley’s Comet to circle back near Earth, and history looks to be repeating itself. However, this is not the movies. In the real world, the Texas Senator has faced similar challenges, while remaining true to his principals along the way.
Like Capra’s movie, Cruz has fought his way against what he terms “The Washington Cartel” to strike a chord in the hearts and minds of millions of Americans. Cruz echoes the theme that individuals, the people, can make a difference against a corrupt and abusive government and its puppet media. He earned more points this weekend in Iowa voicing similar messages. To many of his fellow senators on Thursday, Sen. Cruz accused politicians who voted to spend record breaking monies in support of White House agendas as “giving President Obama a diamond encrusted, glow-in-the-dark AmEx card.”
Cruz, the fighting diplomat, earned a robust escalation of support as the Republican nominee for president after his now famous blasting of the CNBC Presidential Debate panelists this week. With an average donation of $54, showing the money is coming from rank and file Americans, within 22 hours of the debate his campaign raised $1,125,978. Even some liberal media are now stating Cruz won the third GOP debate.
“This level of support shows just exactly how energized and excited people are by our campaign,” said Cruz. “Whether it’s on the stage or on the stump, we are telling the truth to the American people about how broken and unaccountable Washington is, and how it’s going to take consistent conservative leadership to get America back on track.”
While reports show some GOP contenders’ operations are showing signs of collapse, observers note that Cruz is running an intelligent, detailed and strategic campaign. The well-thought out strategies could chart a continuing favorable course for the Hispanic senator.
“We are seeing conservatives begin to coalesce around my campaign,” Cruz said of this week’s surge in support. “It’s Tea Party groups, libertarians, evangelicals, social conservatives, and millions more who have been disappointed by the career politicians and lobbyists of the Washington Cartel. People want to unite behind someone who will take on Washington and I believe that’s why we’re seeing such tremendous support.”
On the floor of the Senate Thursday, Cruz told many of his peers they are part of the Washington Cartel, which he defined as “career politicians in both parties who get in bed with lobbyists and special interests here in Washington and grow and grow and grow government.”
“The Washington Cartel is, I believe, the source of the volcanic frustration Americans face across this country,” Cruz announced. “And it is difficult to find a better illustration of the Washington Cartel than the charade we are engaged in this evening. This deal that we are here to vote on is both shockingly bad on the merits, and it is also a manifestation of the bipartisan corruption that suffuses Washington, D.C.”
The Senator summarized the terms of the budget deal by revealing that the bill “adds $85 billion in spending increases…$85 billion in spending increases…$85 billion to our national debt…85 billion to your children and my children that they’re somehow expected to pay. I don’t know about your kids, but my girls don’t have $85 billion laying around in their rooms…”
“It’s worth thinking about just how much $85 billion is,” he continued. “It’s more than the Senate negotiated with the House when Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) was majority leader. When Harry Reid was majority leader, the Ryan-Murray budget agreement, which was a flawed agreement, an agreement I voted against, increased spending by $63 billion over two years. Now, Mr. President, what does it say to you that a supposedly Republican majority of the United States Senate negotiates a bigger spending bill than Harry Reid and the Democrats?”
“Republican majorities have just given President Obama is a diamond-encrusted, glow-in-the-dark AmEx card. And it has a special feature,” Cruz confirmed. “The president gets to spend it now, and they don’t even send him the bill. They send the bill to your kids and my kids. It’s a pretty nifty card. You don’t have to pay for it. You get to spend it and it’s somebody else’s problem.”
Then, to the shock of many in the chamber, Cruz went after the outgoing Senate Majority Leader, by stressing that the bill “represents the Cartel in all of its glory because this is the combined work product of Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) and and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid.”
“The entire time Republican leaders have been promising, ‘We’re going to do something on the budget. We’re going to rein in the president,’ they have been in the back room negotiating to fund every single thing Obama did,” Cruz called them out. “… Nineteen times in the last ten months this so-called Republican majority has passed legislation, has had a vote succeed where a majority of Democrats supported it and a majority of Republicans opposed it…”
“Why is a Republican majority leader fighting to accomplish the priorities of the Democratic minority?” Cruz asked. Perhaps that is the foremost reason Boehner is now out!
