Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appear to have different ideas on how to lead the party through the upcoming midterms, The Hill reports.
"We have 254 days until Jan. 3, 2019," Cruz said in a presentation to the GOP conference last week. "I believe we need to do everything humanly possible to deliver on the promises we made to voters and to score major substantive victories for the American people while we have majorities in both houses and a Republican president.
"If we do that, we maximize the chances of keeping majorities in both houses because we're enacting policies that make a real and positive difference in people's lives."
Cruz, who faces a strong opponent in Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, this November, has begun pushing for a vote on a budget with reconciliation instructions, allowing major legislation to pass through the Senate with a simple majority. In his speech last week, he attempted to sway Republicans toward passing a budget with reconciliation instructions.
But McConnell "pushed back," according to one source, an unnamed senator. "He said, 'I agree with where you want to go but we have a math problem.'"
Although Cruz has been a critic of McConnell in the past, this is the first public split from the majority leader in some time, though sources told the Hill the senator made his points with respect.
"We need to keep going," Cruz said. "We need to finish the job at Obamacare. We need to keep simplifying the tax code and lowering taxes. We need to keep lifting regulation so we see more jobs at higher wages for working men and women."
Multiple Republican staffers and legislators told The Hill they do not oppose Cruz's idea, but he has yet to offer a plan that will win the support of the entire GOP conference.
"If Sen. Cruz has a plan that can get 50 votes, he should show it to us," one source said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, one of three GOP senators to vote against the party's plan to repeal Obamacare, said she is "not enthusiastic" about another debate over healthcare "at all. Not at all. It would be one thing if somebody had the plan. What's the proposal? Are we just going to go through an exercise with no plan? We did that, and it didn't work too well."
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