House Republican: Ted Cruz is a 'fraud,' and 'bad for the party'

A top House Republican said he hoped Friday’s vote to keep the government running but strip funding for Obamacare would expose Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz as “a fraud.”

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said he hoped the likely doomed Senate vote to defund the Affordable Care Act would show Republicans that Cruz is “bad for the party,” reported NBC News.

The tea party-backed freshman senator pressured fellow Republicans to use the threat of a government shutdown to repeal President Barack Obama’s landmark legislation.

Cruz and his Senate ally, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) angered House Republicans on Wednesday when they signaled they wouldn't filibuster when the Senate’s Democratic majority added Obamacare funding back to the budget bill.

Although Democrats need five Republican votes to begin and end debate, the Democratic Senate majority has vowed not to defund the health care law and the president has said he’d veto any budget legislation that does.

That leaves Cruz and Lee with little more than hope to strip funding for Obamacare –- and to House Republicans, that’s not nearly enough.

"It's pretty clear they had no plan all along," a senior House Republican aide told Talking Points Memo after Friday’s vote. "They already let Senate Democrats leave for the weekend. Where is the action?"

After spending the summer pressuring fellow Republicans to shut down the government unless a budget was passed without funding to implement the health care law, some of whose major provisions go into effect next month, some members of his own party appear willing to hang Cruz out to dry.

“It is a step in the right direction, and hopefully it will be a major step in letting people know that Ted Cruz is a fraud and will no longer have any influence in the Republican Party,” King said.

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[Image via Agence France-Presse]