GOP pragmatists protest Tea Party shutdown tactics
WASHINGTON — Rankand-file Republican lawmakers are increasingly protesting the tactics of Tea Party colleagues who demand that legislation to keep the government open also take away federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The leading proponent of bringing the fight over funding the group to a possible government shutdown remained unbowed.
Eleven GOP House freshmen — several facing difficult re-election races next year in Democratic-leaning districts — say they support a short-term funding bill needed to guarantee the government won’t shut down next week. But they oppose a shutdown confrontation over Planned Parenthood, which is under intense criticism for undercover videos that raise questions about its practice of supplying fetal tissue for scientific research.
A “Dear Colleague” letter by New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and Pennsylvania Rep. Ryan Costello promises to “avoid repeating the mistakes of the past” — a reference to the GOP-sparked 2013 shutdown over implementation of the new health care law.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is using his rivalry with GOP leaders in Washington to help define his presidential campaign, responded in an editorial essay that simply the threat of a shutdown is sending “Republican leadership running for the hills.”
The Senate is scheduled to vote Thursday afternoon on a measure that would fund the government through Dec. 11 and try to “defund” Planned Parenthood. Its expected failure at the hands of filibustering Democrats would then set the stage for a vote on a more traditional temporary funding bill that would be free of the Planned Parenthood controversy.
Cruz fired back Wednesday with an editorial in Politico in which he urged GOP leaders such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to vote again and again to fund the government on a piecemeal basis and force Democrats and Obama to explain why they are defending Planned Parenthood. Instead, he says, GOP leaders are ready to surrender.