Jason Cannon
Unit 1-2
10/17/13
Synopsis:
This article addressed whether Republican Senators Mike Lee and Ted Cruz were heroes or idiots during the recent budget issues. They both wanted to defund Obamacare and they promoted the House's rejection of the budget bill containing Obamacare. Many fellow Senate Republicans did not agree with the actions and positions of Lee & Cruz as well as the House Republicans. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said, "The way we're behaving and the path we've taken in the last couple of weeks leads to a marginalized party in the eyes of the American people." Senator John McCain called the Republican stand up "a fool's errand." Despite these contrary views from members of the Republican party, some think that the position and actions of Lee and Cruz are great and that they are heroes for trying to get rid of Obamacare. The article closed by saying that the government shutdown shifted the focus away from the problems of Obamacare.
Detailed Analysis / comments:
In the article it said that Cruz was a possible presidential candidate for 2016. Evaluating Cruz's actions based on this piece of information causes me to wonder if Cruz acted the way he did to set himself up for a presidential campaign. He might have been trying to get his name and his ideology out there. He should not have acted the way he did just to help himself in a possible presidential campaign (even though I don't think his actions helped his national reputation and potential campaign). I think that it is okay for Republicans to not vote for a budget that they feel is wrong, but that it is not okay to just vote against it for personal status. I don't know what the intentions of Lee or Cruz were and so I don't want to call them idiots or heroes. In my opinion, though, the negative reaction of other Republican Senators is justified. I also think that the positive reaction of some Republicans to Lee and Cruz's actions is also okay. The big issue for me is the intentions of Lee and Cruz. No matter what you think, it probably is true that the Republican party
became more divided as a result of the shutdown and actions of
Republicans like Lee and Cruz.
Yes! Does the American public realize what some of the House Representatives were trying to do? They were trying to get their names into American households, and into American minds as the saviors of the government. It wasn't working because what they were trying to do wasn't worth hurting everyone. Self interest is fine, but when it comes to hurting someone else over that, I say that our representatives need to fully engage and do what the people need. They have to have integrity and courage!
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