Back in the day when Hurricane Sandy had had her way with the east coast of the United States, Senator Ted Cruz (R – Texas) voted against the hurricane relief bill. When Hurricane Harvey was targeting Texas, the good senator was supporting federal relief for where ever Harvey made landfall in Texas. Needless to say the media and left and right were all quick to point out his hypocrisy on the two bills. Of course his excuse was the Sandy recovery bill contained too much pork and other clauses not related to the hurricane relief efforts.
Now the Hurricane Harvey bill, essentially agreed upon by President Trump, House Minority Leader Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Schumer had two major acts that are much more heinous issues for GOP conservatives…the budget continuation bill and raising the borrowing cap. Yet Senator Cruz had no problem voting in favor.
But then we come to Senator Ron Johnson (R – Wisconsin), who voted no as a protest vote because the Harvey relief bill did in fact contain the budget continuation and borrowing cap measures. Of course he didn’t mean it as a slight to those Americans suffering in Texas and Louisiana…but after all there were principles involved here. It would have been interesting to see if he would stand on principle or compassion if the vote had been closer.
But guess what gentlemen! Your party is in full and complete control of both the House and the Senate. There is absolutely no reason that you couldn’t have split the bill…none whatsoever. You know the relief would have passed without question…you just didn’t want to confront the Democrats or the nation over the other two bills. Way to duck and cover!
BTW: on this one point I agree with Senator Cruz and Senator Johnson. I do believe that Congress buries too much stuff in any variety of bills. The Harvey relief bill should have been a stand alone bill and everyone could have gotten behind it and shown what a good American they really are.
And for full transparency the budget continuation bill should have been separate. Lifting the borrowing cap should have been separate. And then each and every legislator would have had to stand on the floor and vote accordingly and have to justify their vote to their constituency. But they weren’t willing to do that…and it’s easier to outlive a hypocrite label than appear to be an ideological traitor.
Drain the Swamp!
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