DALLAS – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, takes issue with those who called last autumn's government shutdown a disaster for Republicans.
In fact, he thinks the GOP's losing budget battle over defunding Obamacare planted the seeds of victories to come.
Speaking to the Defending the American Dream Summit sponsored by Americans for Prosperity over the weekend, Cruz declared: "As a result of that fight, President Obama's popularity has plummeted."
He said the payoff will come at the polls.
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"I am convinced we are going to win in 2014," he said. "And 2016 is going to be even better."
The senator painted a bright scenario for the GOP he attributes to the party's stand against the president's health-care plan.
"In the year 2017, a Republican president, in the Rose Garden, is going to sign a bill repealing every word of Obamacare," he said.
That line brought the Dallas crowd to its feet for the Texas native-son, prompting a rafter-shaking round of, "Run, Ted, run!"
Cruz said stopping Obamacare will be one of two critical issues in the November election. The other will be stopping amnesty for illegal immigrants.
He also stressed the importance of sticking to basic principles.
"There are a lot of folks in Washington who think the way you win elections is you go to the mushy middle, you blur everything, you stand for nothing," he said. "It doesn't work."
In the eyes of the Texan, the 2014 election comes down to a paraphrase of Obama's broken promise: "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."
Instead, Cruz said, it will be, "If you like your senator, you can keep your senator."
"But if your senator is responsible for screwing up the economy, for costing you your job, for forcing you into part-time work, for taking away your health care, for taking away your doctor, and then, doing nothing about it, there are some Democratic senators we need to introduce to the private sector," he quipped.
Cruz named states where incumbents are in immediate jeopardy: Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Colorado, New Mexico and Alaska.
"And there are some Democratic senators who sorely need to lose their exemptions from Obamacare," Cruz deadpanned.
The senator said there was no question that Obama's executive order in 2012 to grant amnesty to 800,000 immigrants who entered the country illegally as children has provided a huge incentive for more illegal immigration.
Cruz noted that the year before the policy of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was implemented, there were only 6,000 unaccompanied children trying to enter the country.
That grew to 90,000 this year and is expected to grow to 145,000 next year, he maintained.
The Texan said he was proud to see the House provide leadership by passing two bills he had introduced but were ignored in the Senate.
One explicitly stated the president has no authority to grant prospective amnesty to anyone who is in the country illegally. The other would reimburse states for calling up the National Guard to secure the border, as was done by Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Cruz noted that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., would not even allow a vote "on anything to secure the border."
"Republicans in Washington are standing up and leading. And Harry Reid and the Democrats, the do-nothing Senate, are ignoring the national security priorities of this country," he said.
Like Obama, Cruz graduated from Harvard Law School.
Unlike Obama, Cruz was called "brilliant" by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.
The senator had a succinct legal analysis of the president's rumored plans to grant amnesty to as many as another six million illegal immigrants.
"Let me be absolutely clear," Cruz said. "Doing that is utterly lawless."