Noted progressive activist and former
Obama administration czar Van Jones went head-to-head with Sen. Ted Cruz
(R-Texas) on CNN’s “Crossfire” Thursday night as the pair battled over
Obamacare and the Republican party.
Jones began by noting that polling
shows the GOP is extremely unpopular, which he attributed to Cruz’s
“leadership” and his plan to defund Obamacare.
“Do you think that in the reflection of
your own heart, you might say, ‘You know what? I’m a new kid here, I
think I owe you an apology?’” he added.
Chuckling at Jones’s premise, Cruz responded: “Van, I know you desperately want to change the topic from Obamacare.”
“Democrats in this town do not want to discuss Obamacare,” the Texas Republican explained. “Why? Because it isn’t working.”
Cruz then argued that it’s not just
Republicans who are polling poorly, pointing out that President Barack
Obama’s approval rating has fallen to 37 percent and Democrats have the
lowest support among the middle class they’ve had the 40 years of
polling.
That’s because the Democrats have
refused to negotiate in regards to the debt ceiling and the federal
budget, turning down GOP proposals to fund vital parts of the government
during the shutdown, Cruz said. Obama and the Democrats are also losing
support because millions of Americans don’t want Obamacare, he added.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
jumped in, saying that the idea Obamacare is a “failure” is the “product
of right-wing histrionics.” He told an isolated story, which he claims
proves how great the health care exchanges are going so far.
“The Republican Party decided that
Obamacare was going to be a failure early on, before Obamacare was even
decided. It was a political choice to pull all support for anything this
president wanted to do,” Whitehouse said as Cruz looked on skeptically.
“Now they have to live with it, so they have to maintain the story
line. But I have to tell you Senator Cruz, I don’t see it at home, I
don’t believe it.”
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