Flashback: CNN, 2013: Ted Cruz Sure Is a Hypocrite for Not Going on ObamaCare!
Yup. That was seriously their stance back then.
CNN, 10-24-13: Ted Cruz sure is a hypocrite for getting his health insurance through his wife instead of the ObamaCare exchange.
Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, who has repeatedly blasted fellow members of Congress and legislative staffers for accepting federal health insurance support, has revealed that his coverage is provided through his wife, a Goldman Sachs executive.
Cruz’s office told CNN Thursday that Cruz is covered by his wife’s policy. Heidi Nelson Cruz’s policy is worth at least $20,000 a year, according to the story as originally reported by the New York Times.
Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for the senator, told CNN that “the senator is on his wife’s plan, which comes at no cost to the taxpayer and reflects a personal decision about what works best for their family.” Frazier had previously given the same statement to the Times.
Cruz was criticized by Democrats and some Republicans during the recent government shutdown debate for his calls to strip federal health care support from members of Congress and both legislative and executive branch staffers. Cruz’s critics argue that the support is no different from what other large employers provide for their workers.
Their anger has been magnified by suspicions that the senator does not have to rely on his employer – the U.S. Senate – to get coverage.
Cruz and other Republicans argue that ending the subsidy is only a matter of fairness, and that public officials should be required to get coverage through the Obamacare exchanges with no financial assistance.
CNN, 3-24-15: Ted Cruz sure is a hypocrite for getting his health insurance through the ObamaCare exchange instead of through his wife.
Ted Cruz is going on Obamacare.
The newly announced Republican presidential candidate told CNN’s Dana Bash on Tuesday that he will sign up for health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act — a law he has been on a crusade to kill.
“We’ll be getting new health insurance and we’ll presumably do it through my job with the Senate, and so we’ll be on the federal exchange with millions of others on the federal exchange,” 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.
Cruz’s admission comes one day after CNN first reported that the senator would no longer have access to health benefits through his wife’s employer, Goldman Sachs. Heidi Cruz, a managing director at the firm’s Houston office, has gone on unpaid leave for the duration of the senator’s presidential campaign and will not have access to the company’s benefits during that time.
See what’s going on? When he was getting insurance through his wife, he wanted to end special payments for Congressmen that the rest of the country wasn’t allowed to get. CNN said: HYPOCRITE!!!! You wouldn’t be saying that if you didn’t get insurance through your wife!!!
Now, he can no longer get insurance through his wife, so he will start getting it through his job. He could have done that before ObamaCare and he can still do it now. But, because he opposed the special payments, he declined to take them — the honorable and principled stand. And CNN said: HYPOCRITE!!!! Why don’t you get insurance on your own, like through your wife’s COBRA or something!!!
They will find a way to cackle and fling monkey poo no matter what he does.
(H/t Bridget F.)
These people are seriously unbelievable. How do they continue to have the capacity to shock me?
Patterico (9c670f) — 3/26/2015 @ 9:16 pmIt’s as if the media doesn’t like Republicans like Ted Cruz and will say anything to hurt them.
DRJ (e80d46) — 3/26/2015 @ 9:24 pmJames O’Keefe’s next undercover operation should involve CNN.
aunursa (932331) — 3/26/2015 @ 9:31 pmOT:
amazing if anyone survived this on the ground level If someone had turned on the gas after the inspectors left, can they be charged with murder? negligent homicide? (i’m suspicious because NYC has a recent history of developers just going ahead and doing things, regulations be danmed)
What is the saying? laws and regulations are for the fools?
seeRpea (c1462d) — 3/26/2015 @ 9:45 pmwarning , politico link stunning allegations are part of an investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general into claims of sexual harassment and misconduct within DEA; FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the U.S. Marshals Service. The IG’s office found that DEA did not fully cooperate with its probe.
This is all because Obamacare IS A GOP PLAN!!!
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/obama-obamacare-was-republicans-plan/article/2562016
Kevin M (25bbee) — 3/26/2015 @ 9:51 pmFrom Kevin M’s link:
He’s shameless. But if he wants to credit Republicans — which I assume means Romney — then Republicans should also be the ones to decide whether it works, and it doesn’t.
DRJ (e80d46) — 3/26/2015 @ 9:57 pmre #5: literally made my mouth open in amazement.
seeRpea (c1462d) — 3/26/2015 @ 9:59 pmDoes this mean he won’t take credit for it when he releases his 3rd autobiography on Jan 21 2016?
Hey, CNN is the top source for cable news, so they can say whatever they . . . oh, wait.
Never mind.
Estragon (ada867) — 3/26/2015 @ 10:04 pmAfter all, Obamacare got a unanimous Republican vote!
Kevin M (25bbee) — 3/26/2015 @ 10:37 pmBelated R.I.P. to Bob Parlocha, jazz music radio host extraordinaire
Icy (ba224f) — 3/26/2015 @ 11:56 pmI remember being annoyed when the media complained that Cruz got private insurance through his wife. It seemed like an attack on conservatives, because they never told us what Democrats voted for the thing and weren’t on it.
But this is a new low.
bridget (37b281) — 3/27/2015 @ 3:47 amThe lie about “It’s the Republican’s Plan,” is one more example of how bad it is doing. The only fact is that, at one time, the Heritage Foundation supported the concept of a personal mandate to deal with the perceived problem of “free riders” who came to ERs with no insurance. It was later decided that this problem was not a major issue and it was dropped. There NEVER was any support for blowing up employer based insurance. The McCain Plan in 2008 was all about choice and portability.
The Senator would replace the special tax breaks for employer-based health insurance with a universal system of health care tax credits for the purchase of health insurance. These health care tax credits of $5,000 for a family and $2,500 for an individual would be indexed annually for inflation and would be available to Americans regardless of income, employment, or tax liability. Even prominent critics concede that such a tax change is a principled and far-reaching proposal.[2] This change alone would lay the groundwork for unprecedented consumer choice and competition in the health care sector.
I was a supporter of the French Plan which provided free choice and the ability to pay extra for the doctor you want to see.
The people who wrote Obamacare used every lobbyist for leftist causes and the insurance lobby, learning from LBJ that “It is better to have them inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in.” That was an improvement on Hillary in 1992 but just barely.
It will not work and we are just tolerating the destruction of the existing system with no hope of improvement. The institutional memory of doctors is going away as older docs retire. That is a feature, not a bug, What will be left will be new graduates with big loans and no idea of how to set up a practice rather than work for a salary. The hospitals are taking over and it will not be user friendly.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 3/27/2015 @ 5:21 am“Bill Clinton is not a hypocrite. If a man believes that it is just and moral to redistribute wealth, there is nothing hypocritical in his attempts to redistribute some of that wealth to himself.”
— PJ ‘O’Rourke
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/27/2015 @ 5:39 amWell done, bridget.
DRJ (e80d46) — 3/27/2015 @ 6:52 am