Washington Examiner Discloses Existence of Ted Cruz’s Gov Shutdown “JournoList”
House and Senate conservatives unite against everyone else
By Rebecca Berg
As Republicans and Democrats squabble amongst themselves and against each other about how and whether to reopen the government, conservative Republicans in the House and Senate have remained on the same page, at times uncannily.
Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, mascots of the ongoing conservative-driven fight against Obamacare, on Monday floated the idea of passing tightly-targeted budget bills that would keep only certain government programs running. By Tuesday and again Wednesday, House Republicans were bringing such measures to the floor for a vote.
The apparent mind meld is no coincidence.…
House and Senate conservative lawmakers are not the only ones coordinating, either. A non-government email listserv organized by Cruz’s staff, called “We Win, They Lose,” has been a hive of activity before and during the government shutdown.
Members of the group have engaged in more than 100 email threads during the government funding debate, featuring discussions about legislation and messaging among Tea Party leaders, advocacy groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund, conservative media, and like-minded senior staff in the House and Senate.
One thread focused on a dispute over whether to call the government closing “Obama’s shutdown” or “Harry Reid’s shutdown.” They settled on the senate majority leader, and Cruz started using “Harry Reid’s Shutdown” as a Twitter hashtag.
Another discussion focused on whether the House should eliminate health care subsidies for members of Congress and their staff, a provision that was later attached to the House’s government funding bill. A few voices on the thread warned it could be shortsighted.
The conversations often play out at the speed of Congress. One thread Tuesday coincided with a House vote on the targeted appropriations bills. Rules required that the bills get a two-thirds majority to pass and Amanda Carpenter, a senior communications adviser to Cruz, started asking about when the bills could be brought up and passed with only a simple-majority vote.
“They’ll do that tomorrow, and add a couple bills to the docket,” replied Jason Yaworske, a legislative strategist at Heritage Action.
“And they’ll now have the only substantially bipartisan votes on record in this whole thing,” added Connie Hair, chief of staff to Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.
In addition to organizing the listserv and leading many of its discussions, Cruz’s staff also use it to organize occasional conference calls.
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