Block Obama’s nominees, Cruz urges

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in an op-ed published on Wednesday laid out his plan to fight President Obama’s upcoming executive action on immigration, saying the Senate should block the president’s nominees and use its spending power to limit Obama’s authority. 

{mosads}The plan from Cruz, known as an advocate for all-out fights against Obama, comes as the president announced he will address the nation on his plan on Thursday night. 

“Congress, representing the voice of the People, should use every tool available to prevent the President from subverting the rule of law,” the possible 2016 presidential candidate wrote in Politico Magazine.

Cruz’s plan calls for the new Republican Senate majority, arriving in January, to use its power over nominees. 

“If the President announces executive amnesty, the new Senate Majority Leader who takes over in January should announce that the 114th Congress will not confirm a single nominee — executive or judicial — outside of vital national security positions, so long as the illegal amnesty persists,” Cruz wrote.  

Republicans have been weighing different methods of using Congress’s power over spending to fight Obama’s actions while also averting a government shutdown. They include separating out immigration-related funding, or later rescinding that funding, once they have control of both chambers of Congress.  

Cruz raised a different spending-related option. 

“The new Congress should exercise the power of the purse by passing individual appropriations bills authorizing critical functions of government and attaching riders to strip the authority from the president to grant amnesty,” Cruz wrote. 

He acknowledged that a government shutdown is a possibility. The Texas Republican has taken much of the blame for last year’s shutdown amid an effort to defund ObamaCare. Cruz blames Obama for it, however, and is seeking to place the burden on the president again.

“President Obama will no doubt threaten a shutdown — that seems to be the one card he repeatedly plays — but Congress can authorize funding for agencies of government one at a time,” Cruz wrote. “If the President is unwilling to accepting funding for, say, the Department of Homeland Security without his being able to unilaterally defy the law, he alone will be responsible for the consequences.”

Obama’s actions could include deferring deportations for the parents of children who are U.S. citizens, expanding the current deferral program for children brought to the country illegally and expanding the visa program for high-tech workers. 

Cruz argued these moves are lawless. Some Republicans have raised the prospect of a lawsuit against the president, but Cruz did not mention this option. 

He portrayed the midterm elections as a message against Obama’s actions. 

“The elections were a referendum on amnesty, and the voters soundly rejected it. There was no ambiguity,” Cruz wrote.

“Undeterred, President Obama appears to be going forward,” he continues. “It is lawless. It is unconstitutional. He is defiant and angry at the American people. If he acts by executive diktat, President Obama will not be acting as a president, he will be acting as a monarch.”