“What Republican leadership said is we want this to pass, but if every senator affirmatively consents to doing it on 51 votes, then we can all cast a vote no and we can go home to our constituents and say we opposed it. And listen, that sort of show vote, that sort of trickery to the – to the constituents is why Congress has a 13 percent approval rating…

Cruz dismissed possible 2016 GOP presidential rival Rand Paul’s criticism of Bill Clinton’s “predatory behavior” in the White House – he said he had plenty of problems with Clinton’s wife.

“I’m a lot less concerned with Bill Clinton’s escapades decades ago than I am with Hillary Clinton’s consistently wrong record when it comes to foreign policy, when it comes to domestic policy,” Cruz said of the comments from the GOP senator from Kentucky.

“Throughout her tenure, Hillary Clinton has embraced the same far-left agenda. Before Obamacare there was Hillarycare. And that agenda hurts people who are struggling.”