The Feehery Theory

Trashing the Team You Want to Lead

Posted on March 30, 2015

So, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul voted against the Republican budget in the Senate.

The more I think about it, the more it infuriates me.

How can you lead a team that you don’t want anything to do with?

The budget passed by the Senate was by no means perfect.   Budgets rarely are.

But like everything else that passes a legislative body, it is the process of compromise.

From a conservative perspective, it hit all the high points.

It wasn’t completely irresponsible when it came to defense spending.

It didn’t raise taxes.

It kept the discretionary caps.

And it balanced.

A balanced budget that keeps domestic spending contained and doesn’t raise taxes.  And still Rand Paul and Ted Cruz voted no.

Both of these titans of the conservative movement seem to believe that they are smarter than everybody else, better looking and have more vision than any of their colleagues.

That’s why they both believe that the American people desperately want them to run the country, after only one term in the Senate.

Hey, it worked out well for Barack Obama, right?

I don’t remember how Obama voted on Democratic budgets.  When he was in the Senate, it is probable that the Senate Democrats never even bothered to consider bringing up a budget.  Harry Reid wasn’t much in to budgets back then (or now, for that matter).

Paul offered a silly amendment during the vote-a-rama to increase defense spending by 190 billion dollars, offset by deep cuts in everything else.  It failed miserably.

Improbably, Ted Cruz said that he was undecided on how he was going to vote going into the final series of votes.

Apparently, he decided being part of the team was far riskier for his political future than voting against a balanced budget.

I don’t know how you lead a team that you want to have nothing to do with.

But that’s what Cruz and Paul are trying to do, as demonstrated by their votes against the Republican budget.