The government shutdown may be done, but Sen. Ted Cruz’s fight against the Affordable Care Act appears to be far from over. The freshman Republican senator is on a mission to derail the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, even if that means leading the government to another shutdown early next year.
Cruz, who many are crediting for inciting the government shutdown, has received a number of criticisms from Democrats and even members of his party. The latest Republican to criticize him is former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who spoke to ABC’s “This Week” about what he called the Tea Party’s failed “tactics” to defund the ACA.
“Tactically, it was a mistake to focus on something that couldn’t be achieved, and that’s what that was, it was tactics. In fact, I would argue that allowing Obamacare to be implemented, two things would happen," Bush said.
"One, it would be so dysfunctional, if it were implemented faithfully, that it would be clear for more people. Or, it couldn’t be implemented because the government is not capable of doing it. It looks like that, the latter rather than the former, is happening. But that was all crowded out by a miscalculation of using something that shouldn’t be use: the debt ceiling limit and the continuation of the budget.”
Bush cautioned that pursuing “spikes of political conversations not grounded in reality” would lead the world to perceive the U.S. as “untrustworthy.”
When asked if he had any advice for Cruz, Bush said that he believed the best way to repeal the ACA is by providing a Republican alternative. “You never hear the alternative,” Bush said, “We could do this at a much lower cost, with improved quality, based on our principles, free market principles.” He added that Republicans should also show how “Obamacare, flawed to its core, doesn’t work.”
Bush continued, “Have a little bit of self-restraint. It might actually be, politically, a better approach to see the massive dysfunction but we don’t even hear about that because we’ve stepped on that message. I think Republicans need to take a step back, show a little self restraint and let this happen a little bit more organically.”
However, Bush didn’t blame the government shutdown squarely on his party members in Congress. “I’m not blaming Republicans. I think we have a systemic problem in Washington, and the void of leadership is making it harder to get to a better place.”
Despite backlash from some of his fellow Republicans, Cruz’s popularity among Tea Party Republicans has soared, the Pew Research Center reports. Since July, Cruz’s favorability among Tea Party Republicans has risen a staggering 27 points, from 47 percent to 74 percent. However, Pew also reports that his unfavorability among non-Tea Party Republicans has risen 15 points since July, from 16 percent to 31 percent.
The support from the Tea Party may be just what Cruz needs to continue his fight against the healthcare reform law. In a recent interview with ABC News' Jonathan Karl, Cruz said, "I will continue to do anything I can to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare."
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