Cruz blasts GOP leadership as liars

WASHINGTON – The headlines blared "Cruz accuses McConnell of lying" – a rare breach of protocol on the Senate floor – but it was much more than that.

Essentially, Cruz declared war on the leadership of his own party.

He also accused them of sabotaging conservatives and lying to voters.

Appearing on "The Rush Limbaugh Show" Friday afternoon, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accused both GOP and Democrat leaders of constantly betraying the American people and selling them out.

But it was the lies by his own party bosses that got his goat.

"They don't do what they promise us on the campaign trail," charged Cruz.

"We keep winning elections, and then leaders don't do a darn thing they said they we're going to do."

Cruz said voters were told the GOP just needed to win the Senate.

But what have Republican leaders done now that they're in the majority?

"Exactly the same as what Harry Reid would have done," charged Cruz.

The senator cited how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had just this week used his power to sabotage such conservative priorities as cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood and sanctuary cities.

Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio

Cruz said he could not think of one single conservative issue the current GOP leadership has championed.

Instead, he said, it has pushed through an agenda favored by both big business and the Democrats.

"All of this is about personal enrichment, corporate enrichment, and now it's reached down to elected members of Congress in the House and Senate who somehow are being personally enriched after they retire because they vote for these kinds of things."

The senator said he has never seen a bigger divide between the nation's grassroots and the Washington elite.

"And it's because leadership listens to K Street and Wall Street; it's the big money donors. The actual grassroots conservatives who gave us a majority in both houses, they don't listen to at all. So can you think of a single priority for a real live conservative that this Senate Republican majority has voted on? It's all been what the lobbyists care about."

According to Cruz, once the GOP assumed power over both Houses of Congress, leadership promptly did the opposite of the promises they made to get elected.

"For six months, we've had a Republican majority. What have they done? They passed a trillion-dollar Cromnibus plan filled with corporate pork and corporate welfare. We funded Obamacare and President Obama's executive amnesty, and Republican leadership jammed through the confirmation of Loretta Lynch as attorney general."

That's when Cruz said, "Every one of those is exactly the same as what Harry Reid would have done. And it's why people are frustrated."

Cruz had already sent shock waves through Washington on Friday morning when he took to the Senate floor to accuse McConnell of lying to his face, and to every other Republican senator.

The Texan said, in the presence of every GOP senator, he had asked McConnell if he had cut a deal with Democrats, one that would give him their votes for a massive trade deal in return for bringing up a vote to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank.

"The majority leader looked at me and said, 'There is no deal, there is no deal, there is no deal,'" said Cruz from the Senate floor.

"Like Saint Peter, he repeated it three times."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas

The senator said he had no reason not to believe McConnell, at the time.

But Cruz said he knows that was a lie, now that the majority leader has moved to bring up the bank's re-authorization for a vote.

"What we just saw today was an absolute demonstration that not only what he told every Republican senator, but what he told the press over and over and over again, was a simple lie.

"Well, we now know that when the majority leader looks us in the eyes and makes an explicit commitment that he is willing to say things that he knows are false," lamented the senator.

WND contacted McConnell's office for comment but did not receive a response by the time of this report.

Cruz said congressional support for the Export-Import Bank was a perfect example of Washington cronyism at work.

He explained how huge corporations like Boeing and Walmart get taxpayer money to expand business overseas, and politicians get campaign contributions as a reward.

Cruz deadpanned to Limbaugh, "Any time someone tells you it's not about the money, it's about the money."

The senator said the CEO of Boeing had even recently admitted his company did not need the money, but it was easier and cheaper to raid the taxpayers than to get private loans.

Cruz said career politicians are just interested in campaign contributions.

"At the end of the day, it is about power and money, and the people are getting left behind."

"Why is it that Republican leadership, authorities (such) as Harry Reid and the Democrats (do what they do) -- and the answer is the lobbyists and special interests, the giant corporations that want big Government and power. They give campaign contributions to both Republicans and Democrats," the senator told Limbaugh.

"And today I called out the majority leader for looking 54 Republicans in the eye and telling a flat-out lie. It was a very unfortunate day for the Senate. It's not a good day when the majority leader is willing to lie to the members of the Senate."

Cruz used token opposition to Obamacare as a prime example of GOP leaders ignoring the will of their constituents.

"We'll have a vote on repealing Obamacare," he said on the Senate floor. "The Republicans will all vote yes; the Democrats will all vote no. It will be at a 60-vote threshold. It will fail. It will be an exercise in meaningless political theater.

Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid, R-Nev.

"I agree with Senator Reid when he said the Obamacare amendment is a cynical amendment. Of course it is. It is empty showmanship," he added.

Cruz amplified those thoughts to Limbaugh.

"It's complete fiction. He (McConnell) wants a show vote on repealing Obamacare. Now, of course back in October 2013 when (Sen.) Mike Lee and I were leading the fight to defund Obamacare, then Mitch McConnell joined with Harry Reid in leading the fight to preserve Obamacare. So when it actually has teeth, leadership wasn't with us. But they do want an empty show vote.

"And, unfortunately, it's why we see so many campaign conservatives that pretend to be conservative on the campaign trail but they don't govern according to what they promised us on the campaign trail," Cruz concluded.

But he said there was hope.

"We have seen before how to defeat the Washington cartel, when, in 1980, the Reagan revolution came from the American people. Remember, Reagan, a lot of people forget, he took on the Washington cartel. He primaried Gerald Ford. You want to tick off Republican leadership, come within an inch of defeating the incumbent Republican president. The Reagan revolution came from the grassroots.

"The only way we can break this, the only way we can get leaders to actually stand for conservative principles is if there's a grassroots tsunami. And I believe 2016 is gonna be an election like 1980, that we're gonna win by painting in bold colors and not pale pastels," summed up the senator who hopes to be the next president.

In the meantime, Cruz said the "Washington cartel is coming after me hard," and lobbyists are supporting every candidate but him.

Follow Garth Kant @DCgarth