During my chat with Senator Cruz, I asked him whether he ever worries about overestimating the country’s enthusiasm for defunding or delaying Obamacare. He says he does not, and he said his efforts are, partly, about changing the “popular consciousness” about the law.
NATIONAL REVIEW: Do you ever wonder if it’s just the conservative base that’s with you? Do you ever fear that much of the country, which just reelected President Obama, doesn’t agree with you?
CRUZ: Well, yet another major benefit of the last two months is that it dramatically elevated in the national debate the enormous harms Obamacare is inflicting on so many people across this country. And that has penetrated the popular consciousness in a way that’s hard to imagine, even a couple months ago. When the opening skit of the season premiere of Saturday Night Live is a three-minute skit about what a disaster Obamacare is — on the merits, on the substance — that is a powerful barometer to the degree the failures of Obamacare are penetrating the public consciousness. And I’ll note, additionally, that such renowned right-wing kooks such as Wolf Blitzer, Ezra Klein, Alan Colmes, and the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, President Obama’s home newspaper, have all publicly called for delaying Obamacare. That is indicative of the degree to which the argument has been moved forward that this law isn’t working and it’s hurting the American people.