GOP Sen. Ted Cruz said Wednesday that President Obama will "no doubt threaten a shutdown" with his upcoming executive action on immigration.
"[T]hat seems to be the one card he repeatedly plays � but Congress can authorize funding for agencies of government one at a time," Cruz (R-Texas) wrote in an op-ed published in Politico Magazine. "If the President is unwilling to accepting [sic] funding for, say, the Department of Homeland Security without his being able to unilaterally defy the law, he alone will be responsible for the consequences."
Cruz, who is widely considered to have been one of the primary actors in last year's shutdown, has frequently accused Democrats of causing the debacle. At the time, Cruz and various tea party conservatives refused to vote for a continuing resolution to fund the government unless the Affordable Care Act was defunded.
"Congress, representing the voice of the People, should use every tool available to prevent the President from subverting the rule of law," Cruz wrote. "If the President announces executive amnesty, the new Senate Majority Leader who takes over in January should announce that the 114th Congress will not confirm a single nominee�executive or judicial�outside of vital national security positions, so long as the illegal amnesty persists"
Congressional leaders have indicated they are averse to a shutdown, and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has explicitly promising to avoid one.
�Let me make it clear: There will be no government shutdowns and no default on the national debt,� McConnell said on Nov. 5, the day after Republicans won control of the upper chamber.
The White House has also dismissed the possibility of a shutdown over the immigration action but has said the responsibility for avoiding such an action rests with Congress.
"I don't anticipate, based on the comments by Sen. McConnell and others, that there will be a government shutdown as a result of this," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during Wednesday's press briefing.
The only thing worse than a liberal is a liberal that thinks they're a conservative.
