Rep. Colin Allred called out Sen. Ted Cruz for voting against the stopgap spending bill that Congress passed on Saturday to avert a federal government shutdown until November 17.
Allred (D-TX) is challenging Cruz (R-TX) for his senate seat in 2024.
The bill had the support of all Democrats and a majority of Republicans in both chambers of Congress. However, House Republicans from Texas voted 16 to 9 against the stopgap measure.
“There are folks who want to get things done here, and we also have some folks who just want to burn everything down,” said Allred, reported Fox News.
“[Cruz is] somebody who is part of the problem, and that’s what this next election is going to be about. We are seeing it in stark terms right now in these vote totals. You see who some of the problem children are, and we don’t have to put up with it,” Allred claimed.
While discussing the passage of the bill during an appearance on MSNBC, Allred took aim at Cruz, saying, “In the Senate, when they passed their continuing resolution — when it’s going to be coming to us — only 19 senators were voting against that. Ted Cruz is one of them. That’s why, here in Texas, we got to get rid of him.”
Cruz released a statement defending his vote against the bill:
“No one wants a government shutdown, and I have proudly championed the End Government Shutdowns Act, which would send the government into an automatic continuing resolution with a one percent reduction in spending if Congress could not get its act together to fund the government.
“However, Democrats are opposed to spending cuts, or spending limits of any kind, even their own spending limit that they agreed to less than four months ago. This continuing resolution does nothing to address the acute crisis at the Texas-Mexico border, itself created by deliberate Democrat policies. I voted no.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) overcame a divided Republican caucus to pass the Continuing Resolution. For his trouble, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who voted against the bill, filed a motion on Monday to remove McCarthy from the speaker’s chair.
MATT GAETZ FILES MOTION TO VACATE AGAINST MCCARTHY pic.twitter.com/T9DgsMQ02w
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 2, 2023
Addressing the argument by Allred and others that voting against the resolution would be destructive, Gaetz told reporters outside the Capitol, “Real chaos is when the American people have to go through the austerity that is coming if we continue to have $2 trillion annual deficits.”
Gaetz still plans to try to oust McCarthy from speakership this week. Says he's ready to do it over and over again. Argues it's not him throwing House in chaos. "Real chaos is when the American people have to go through the austerity that is coming."
Says he's spoken to Trump. pic.twitter.com/1mLMrqcw0O
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 2, 2023
