Republican leaders say 'no' to more shutdowns — but Sen. Ted Cruz begs to differ - New York Daily News
[h=4]BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images[/h]Senate Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) worked with Senate Democrats on a deal to end the shutdown.
The U.S. Senate’s minority leader vowed Sunday there won’t be another government shutdown, but his firebrand colleague Sen. Ted Cruz would have none of it.
Within moments of the airing of Mitch McConnell’s taped comments, the Tea Party hero at the heart of the 16-day shutdown was already gearing up for another round of brinkmanship.
“I would do anything, and I will continue to do anything I can to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare,” Cruz, a Texas Republican, said on ABC’s “This Week.”
RELATED: POLL SHOWS 74% OF AMERICANS DISAPPROVE OF REPUBLICAN HANDLING OF BUDGET CRISIS
[h=4]BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images[/h][h=4]Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) were among the most vocal proponents of the Republicans' shutdown strategy.[/h]
“What I intend to do is continue standing with the American people to work to stop Obamacare, because it isn’t working, it’s costing people’s jobs, and it’s taking away their health care,” he said.
But Republican leaders, less than a week after the first federal government shutdown in 17 years came to end, rushed to disavow the crippling tactic that sullied the party’s reputation and promised they would no longer rely on the unpopular strategy.
“A number of us were saying back in July that this strategy could not and would not work. And, of course, it didn’t,” McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “So there’ll not be another government shutdown, you can count on that.
RELATED: OBAMA BEMOANS DAMAGE CAUSED BY SHUTDOWN BUT VOWS TO MOVE FORWARD WITH AGENDA
[h=4]Drew Angerer/Getty Images[/h][h=4]President Obama's signature health care law was at the center of Republican efforts to shutdown the government.[/h]
“I don’t think a two-week paid vacation for federal employees is conservative policy,” added McConnell, who played an instrumental role last week in negotiating an eleventh-hour deal with Senate Democrats to end the shutdown and narrowly avert a national default.
Despite Cruz’s rhetoric, a growing number of voices in both parties warned that such threats posed a legitimate danger to the U.S. economy.
“It can’t happen again,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
RELATED: OBAMA SLAMS GOP FOR GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
[h=4]J. Scott Applewhite/AP[/h][h=4]“It can’t happen again," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Sunday of another shutdown.[/h]
“This one was a little bit scary because it got so close to the edge,” Lew said about the shutdown, which was put to an end just hours before the nation would have likely defaulted on its debts.
Analysts estimated that the shutdown — which furloughed more than 800,000 government employees — ultimately sucked $24 billion out of the U.S. economy.
Some in the GOP said there has to be a better way.
RELATED: STASI: TEA PARTY THUGS COST AMERICA BIG
[h=4]Drew Angerer/Getty Images[/h][h=4]Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the GOP should focus more on "a positive agenda for America."[/h]
“What we need to do is move forward with immigration reform, get a positive agenda for America, continue the fight against Obamacare, get taxes down, address this whole issue of sequestration, which is devastating our military,” Arizona Sen. John McCain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“(Cruz) can exercise his rights as a senator, but it will not happen,” McCain said of another shutdown.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham went even further, asking his colleagues to flat out ignore Texas’ first-term senator.
“As a party, we’ve got to do some soul-searching,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“The only way the government can shut down is not what Sen. Cruz says, but what the House [of Representatives] does.”
The U.S. Senate’s minority leader vowed Sunday there won’t be another government shutdown, but his firebrand colleague Sen. Ted Cruz would have none of it.
Within moments of the airing of Mitch McConnell’s taped comments, the Tea Party hero at the heart of the 16-day shutdown was already gearing up for another round of brinkmanship.
“I would do anything, and I will continue to do anything I can to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare,” Cruz, a Texas Republican, said on ABC’s “This Week.”
RELATED: POLL SHOWS 74% OF AMERICANS DISAPPROVE OF REPUBLICAN HANDLING OF BUDGET CRISIS
“What I intend to do is continue standing with the American people to work to stop Obamacare, because it isn’t working, it’s costing people’s jobs, and it’s taking away their health care,” he said.
But Republican leaders, less than a week after the first federal government shutdown in 17 years came to end, rushed to disavow the crippling tactic that sullied the party’s reputation and promised they would no longer rely on the unpopular strategy.
“A number of us were saying back in July that this strategy could not and would not work. And, of course, it didn’t,” McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “So there’ll not be another government shutdown, you can count on that.
RELATED: OBAMA BEMOANS DAMAGE CAUSED BY SHUTDOWN BUT VOWS TO MOVE FORWARD WITH AGENDA
“I don’t think a two-week paid vacation for federal employees is conservative policy,” added McConnell, who played an instrumental role last week in negotiating an eleventh-hour deal with Senate Democrats to end the shutdown and narrowly avert a national default.
Despite Cruz’s rhetoric, a growing number of voices in both parties warned that such threats posed a legitimate danger to the U.S. economy.
“It can’t happen again,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
RELATED: OBAMA SLAMS GOP FOR GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
“This one was a little bit scary because it got so close to the edge,” Lew said about the shutdown, which was put to an end just hours before the nation would have likely defaulted on its debts.
Analysts estimated that the shutdown — which furloughed more than 800,000 government employees — ultimately sucked $24 billion out of the U.S. economy.
Some in the GOP said there has to be a better way.
RELATED: STASI: TEA PARTY THUGS COST AMERICA BIG
“What we need to do is move forward with immigration reform, get a positive agenda for America, continue the fight against Obamacare, get taxes down, address this whole issue of sequestration, which is devastating our military,” Arizona Sen. John McCain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“(Cruz) can exercise his rights as a senator, but it will not happen,” McCain said of another shutdown.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham went even further, asking his colleagues to flat out ignore Texas’ first-term senator.
“As a party, we’ve got to do some soul-searching,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“The only way the government can shut down is not what Sen. Cruz says, but what the House [of Representatives] does.”