Frederick & Cruz's discussion about this beast of a bill and his "hell no" vote starts @ 3:16...TheHill: Sen. Marco Rubio missed Friday’s Senate vote approving a massive $1.8 trillion end-of-the-year spending bill and tax package — a day after he suggested that he could try to slow the legislation down.
The Florida Republican, who is running for president, was the only 2016 contender to miss the vote, which is the Senate's final vote of the year.
Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), three other presidential candidates, all voted against the legislation. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fourth GOP presidential candidate from the Senate, backed the bill.
Cruz announced his opposition to the legislation on Thursday, describing his vote as a “hell no.”
“This is what's wrong with the Washington Cartel,” he told "The John Fredericks Show." “Republican leadership has proven to be the most Democratic leaders we have ever seen. ...[This] does not honor the promises we made to the men and women who elected us.”
Rubio's missed vote comes after he suggested that he could use procedural tactics to try to slow down the legislation, which he said he opposed.Procedural tactics? Yeah, that was to run interference this entire week, while Ryan and McConnell fast-tracked this to Obama! What a huge disappointment and total RUBE Marco has become for the Washington establishment.
“We should use every procedural aspect that we have to slow it down and perhaps force some changes on these things we've been discussing,” Rubio told Fox News.
However, Democrats quickly pointed out that the time agreement on the votes clinched that the Florida Republican would miss his chance.
Rubio's campaign has previously defended his voting record, saying that he will show up in the Senate when he believes his vote could be a deciding factor.
The Florida Republican has missed more than half of the Senate's votes since October.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to weigh in on Rubio's absence Friday, telling reporters he wouldn't comment on the presidential race.
Senate roll call here.
Related links: Rubio: Not voting for the Omnibus was in essence a vote against it
The Republicans in Congress Are Surrendering to Obama
Why I won’t support the latest last-minute $1.1 trillion spending bill.
ADDENDUM: Sen. Ted Cruz sent a stern message to Congress and the Nation following the passage of this monstrocity...
Related links: Faith leaders pick Ted Cruz 'the Fighter' over Marco Rubio 'the Communicator' as their presidential bet"What we’ve seen in Congress today is profoundly disappointing. This spending bill does not honor the promises we made to the men and women who elected us. It funds Obamacare. It funds Planned Parenthood. It funds executive amnesty. It fails to protect our national security and stop Syrian refugees from coming to this country. It fails to do anything to stop the Iranian Nuclear Deal. And what does it do? It jacks up yet more low-skilled immigration, which will only drag down wages, kill American jobs, and hurt working men and women.
This bill is the big-government agenda of Democrats that effectively forfeits our massive Republican victories of 2014 and cements Obama’s priorities for nearly the full remainder of his term. This is the Washington Cartel in action, and it’s precisely why the American people from coast-to-coast are so volcanically frustrated."
TED CRUZ’S FOREIGN POLICY TRIUMPH
A Stark Choice: Ted Cruz’s Jacksonian Americanism vs. Marco Rubio’s Wilsonian Internationalism
