OMIGOD WHAT A HYPOCRITE FIRST HE SAYS HE WOULD REPEAL OBAMACARE NOW HE WANTS TO USE IT!!!!!11!!1!!!!!!

Cruz to sign up for government health care

Ted Cruz, one of the loudest critics of Obamacare, will soon be using it for health insurance coverage.

“We will presumably go on the exchange and sign up for health care, and we’re in the process of transitioning over to do that,” Cruz, a Republican candidate for president, told The Des Moines Register on Tuesday.

Cruz’s wife, Heidi, is going on an unpaid leave of absence from her job at Goldman Sachs to join Cruz full time on the campaign trail, Cruz told the Register.

Bloomberg was first to report that Heidi Cruz has taken the leave. CNN noted that Cruz, who has boasted about not needing to receive government health care benefits, would no longer be covered under his wife’s health insurance plan.

Cruz confirmed that to the Register.

So, why is this actually happening? Well, if you keep reading the story beyond the “gotcha” headline and the misleading initial paragraphs, you find that:

• Cruz has to sign up for ObamaCare because a GOP Senator, Chuck Grassley, passed an amendment (opposed by Democrats, though the story doesn’t mention that part) requiring that members of Congress subject themselves to the same shitty insurance they are foisting on the rest of the country; and

• It doesn’t help him anyway. [Indeed, as we will see below, he is rejecting extra help that Democrats voted themselves despite the Grassley amendment.]

Here’s the next paragraph in the story:

Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley pushed through an amendment on the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, that requires members of Congress to obtain their coverage via health insurance exchanges. Congress pays most of the premium. But Cruz won’t be getting any extra benefit under the Affordable Care Act that a member of Congress wouldn’t have gotten before the ACA became law.

Nevertheless, shameless Big Media sneering entities like CNN call it a “deeply ironic development” — even as they downplay the fact that Cruz is turning down a “contribution” that softens the blow, on principle.

“I strongly oppose the exemption that President Obama illegally put in place for members of Congress because (Senate Minority Leader) Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats didn’t want to be under the same rules as the American people,” Cruz said . . . Under the Affordable Care Act, members of Congress and some designated congressional staffers are required to obtain health care coverage through the D.C. Health Link Small Business Market. The Office of Personnel Management’s guidelines state that lawmakers and their staff receive a “government contribution” if they get health care coverage through the ACA.

But some lawmakers have declined to accept the contribution, saying they do not want to get special treatment. After the interview, a Cruz spokesperson clarified that he wouldn’t take the contribution.

To me, the real story is that a man who despises ObamaCare — who hates it so much that he is basing his entire presidential run on opposing it — still has to sign up for it. That’s the nature of the tyranny of this law and this government.

P.S. While we’re on the topic of sneering media, I have been meaning to highlight this since I first saw it. Here is NPR’s story on Ted Cruz’s announcement speech, from before the speech was made:

He’s a “Republican thorn,” you see — and look at this picture of phony Ted and his phony family pretending to wave to a crowd. Never mind that he’s training his very young daughters to cope with an unusual situation. NPR and the AP (which took the picture) are soooo proud that they managed to portray him as less than genuine.

I’m rapidly getting to the point where expressing my opinion about the media without using obscenities is just too great a challenge. So I’ll end the post now.

No. His responses are masterful. He comes across likable — and not as the scary boogeyman he is portrayed to be by Big Media.

Watch it. It’s great.

UPDATE: DRJ doesn’t blog here any more but I hope she doesn’t mind if I take a comment she wrote and highlight it:

I like Cruz so I lean toward him, but I also think it’s important to look at a candidate’s experience and background in picking a President. Serving as a governor suggests to me that a person has management and leadership qualities, and those are important qualities in this era of big bureaucracy. I can understand why some people want to give former and current governors an edge in picking a President. All things being equal, I would, too. But all qualities aren’t equal when we’re talking about specific candidates. We not only look at background and experience, we also look for communication skills and adherence to American principles and values. I’ve called that charisma in the past but I think it’s more than charisma. It’s what Washington and Lincoln had, and it enabled them to lead America and Americans during difficult times. I think it’s vision.

All Presidents struggle at times but I believe the Presidents who struggle the most are the ones who haven’t had a vision or goal of where they want to take America. Washington and Lincoln knew what they wanted for America, even if they didn’t always know how to achieve it. Obama has a vision, too. He has accomplished many of his goals and that brings me to a related point: Successful Presidents have a vision that is grounded in America’s core principles as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, because those principles are path to justice and prosperity.

I think all the GOP candidates are dedicated Americans. I think several have shown they are skilled managers, have strong characters, are intelligent, and are good men. Most of them would serve America well as President. But I think Ted Cruz has the vision based on America’s core principles that would enable him to lead us in the very best sense of the word.

Very well said.

Sure, it matters if you are a leftist dolt like Barack Obama and haven’t figured out basic common sense principles about government.

But we’re not talking about dolts.

Name me one GOP governor who became President, and whose vaunted executive experience allowed them to accomplish great things with a Democrat Congress.

If you say Reagan then your assigned reading is “The Triumph of Politics” by David Stockman.