U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today joined Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), and more than 70 other members of Congress in sending a letter urging President Joe Biden to withdraw California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s nomination to serve as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Cosigners of the letter include Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), John Kennedy (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). A full list of support can be found in the letter.
The members said in the letter, “We write to express our grave concerns regarding the nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Mr. Becerra’s lack of healthcare experience, enthusiasm for replacing private health insurance with government-run Medicare-for-all, and embrace of radical policies on immigration, abortion, and religious liberty, render him unfit for any position of public trust, and especially for HHS Secretary.”
“Compounding our concerns over Mr. Becerra’s lack of experience is his ardent support of radical policies that will inflict great harm on millions of Americans. At a time when Americans can least afford it, Mr. Becerra enthusiastically supports eliminating the private health insurance market for 160 million Americans, only to replace it with a government takeover branded as Medicare-for-all.”
GOP members argue that the resulting reimbursement cuts would devastate rural health care providers working to stay solvent during the pandemic and would be a slap in the face to the doctors, nurses, and other health care workers keeping our communities healthy and safe.
“This radical position is not a recent or passing fancy. As Mr. Becerra proudly told California Healthline in 2019, “I’ve been a single-payer advocate all my life.” As the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on our nation, Mr. Becerra’s determination to strip Americans of their private health insurance isn’t just bad policy, it’s dangerous.”
Cruz argues that Becerra is seeking to decriminalize illegal immigration, which would extend expensive government benefits like Medicaid to anyone who illegally crosses our borders.
“We ask that you put our country over radical partisan objectives by withdrawing Mr. Becerra’s nomination for HHS Secretary,” they said to President Biden.
Sen. Cruz is often fueled by false information.