Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) compared the strategy of Senate conservatives to attempt to defund Obamacare to a failed Allied push on the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
“As part of an overall strategy, it makes no sense at all. I understand why the speaker wants to couple them in tomorrow’s bill so we can at least get it over to the Senate but as an overall strategy it makes no sense because we know that it’s not going to make it out of the Senate. We know that even if it did, the president would veto it,” King said on CNN.
And to me, this is not the proper venue for that. It makes no sense at all. We know we’re going to lose and again whether it’s Custer, whether it’s kamikaze or whatever it’s Gallipoli or whatever, we are going to lose this and we have so many winning issues against the president.”
The congressman pointed to “a wing within our party led by people like Ted Cruz who have been really — as far as I’m concerned, carrying out a fraud with the people by somehow implying or even saying that this strategy is going to win.”
“They know it’s not going to win. And now it’s over to them in the Senate after tomorrow. We’ll see what they do. Either they put up or shut up.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said in a Wednesday statement that after House passage of a continuing resolution defunding Obamacare, “it will be up to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass this measure.”
“Harry Reid will no doubt try to strip the defund language from the continuing resolution, and right now he likely has the votes to do so. At that point, House Republicans must stand firm, hold their ground, and continue to listen to the American people,” said Cruz.
Cruz said at a press conference with a handful of allies on Thursday that he’ll do “any procedural means necessary” to stop funding of Obamacare, though admitting the day before that the votes probably aren’t there. Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has already announced the House version is “dead on arrival.”
“Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and Mike Lee have been saying if we just send it over to the Senate, they are going to resolve the whole thing, they’re going to win this fight,” King said. “Well, we’re giving it to them. We know they’re not going to win it and it’s going to come back to us in the House without defunding in it, but let them explain to the American people and to the Republican Party why they were saying all summer that this was a winning strategy.”
“So I understand why John Boehner is doing what he’s doing tomorrow. He really has no choice. But again, it’s going to come back to us sometime next week and then we have a decision to make. And I’m saying, we cannot let the government shut down,” the New York Republican added.
“And I would just say, if anything good comes from all of this, when Ted Cruz and Rand Paul or Mike Lee fail in the Senate next week, maybe finally we Republicans will have ended their influence. We as House Republicans should stop letting Ted Cruz set our agenda for us. He should stay in the Senate, he should be keep quiet. They can deliver on this, fine. If he can’t, then he should keep quiet from now on and we shouldn’t listen to him.”
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