The Coward’s Conundrum

By: Erick Erickson
Senators Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn say they put the country first. The debt ceiling needed to be raised. Ted Cruz opposed raising it. So McConnell and Cornyn voted to shut down Ted Cruz. They voted to cut off debate on raising the debt ceiling so that it could be raised.
McConnell and Cornyn have both been very clear about this. John Cornyn told the Austin American-Statesman

“I think it would have been bad for the economy, bad for the American people, and I don’t think it would have been good politics either.”

Mitch McConnell declared it his job to protect the country.
Got that? Had the debt ceiling not been raised it would be “bad for the economy” and “bad for the American people” and the Senate must “protect the country where” it can.

So . . . um . . . if the debt ceiling needed to be raised for the country, the economy, and the people, why did John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell vote against raising the debt ceiling?
They both criticized Ted Cruz for wanting to block raising the debt ceiling, but they voted with Ted Cruz against raising the debt ceiling.
Whaaa…?!?!?!
Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn are cowards. They were in a conundrum. Their constituents did not want the debt ceiling raised. But McConnell and Cornyn wanted the debt ceiling raised. So they shut down Ted Cruz’s filibuster knowing the Democrats would raise the debt ceiling without their votes. They, like their House counterparts, enabled this to happen.
In all their moral preening about what’s good for the country and economy, they were too chicken to actually vote their conscience — they were too chicken to do what they thought was right.

And that is why people hate Washington. Here are two of the most senior Republicans in the Senate who both believed the right thing to do was raise the debt ceiling, but were too chicken to actually cast that vote themselves. Insteaad, they arranged the deck chairs on the Titanic so the Democrats could do it without them. They threw Ted Cruz under the bus only to vote the same why he did on final passage.
Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn fully supported raising the debt ceiling. They both said so. They both said it needed to happen. They were just too chicken to have their finger prints on it.
We need boldness. We need principled leaders. We have too many moral cowards in Washington.