Ted Cruz is still being as optimistic as ever, telling reporters that he’s having substantive discussions with leadership and members of congress “across the ideological spectrum” and that he believes they can and will get to ‘yes’ on the Senate health care bill:
I think Cruz isn’t being as brutally honest as he could be because he doesn’t want to make enemies right now when he’s trying to twist their arms toward a much better bill. Obviously it’s not going to be a full repeal bill and he knows that. But I do hope he continues to fight for full repeal or something very close to that in order to get the bill as good as he possibly can.
It has to fix the underlying problem, as he’s pointed out before, or he won’t vote for it.
Ideally I would like for the two moderates to be the ‘no’ votes and the four conservatives being the ones influencing the bill right now. I’m not optimistic about it, but that is what I’d love to see.