Cruz: Killing Obamacare for one year is 'the essence of a compromise'

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday asserted that the Republican threat to shutdown the government if President Barack Obama's health care reform law was not delayed for at least one year was the "essence of a compromise."

During an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, host David Gregory noted that Cruz had "not engaged in a debate on how to change the law."

"What you've gone out and said is, let's kill the law altogether, let's defund it," Gregory observed.

"The premise of your question is wrong," Cruz insisted. "It is the Democrats who have taken the absolutist position. Look, I've engaged -- I'd like to repeal every word of the law, but that wasn't my position even in this fight. But my position in this fight is we should defund it, which is different from repeal."

"And even now, what the House of Representatives has done is a step removed from defunding, it's delaying it," he added. "Now, that's the essence of a compromise... On the other side, what have the Democrats compromised on? Zero. Nothing."

Gregory pointed out Cruz had spent the entire summer campaigning against Obamacare and gave a marathon 21-hour speech on the Senate floor, but ended up with less senators supporting his effort than he started with.

"You haven't moved anyone," the NBC host said.

Watch the video below from NBC's Meet the Press, broadcast Sept. 29, 2013.