Establishment RINO stooge [score]Peter King[/score] recently launched a series of political attacks against Texas Senator [score]Ted Cruz[/score] even as people in Houston fight for safety after being pounded by Hurricane Harvey.

Peter King, a big government liberal masquerading as a Republican who has an “F” Liberty Score at Conservative Review, 30% out of a possible 100%, is still butthurt that Ted Cruz, a constitutional conservative, voted against a wasteful, pork-laden bill that would have funded relief for Hurricane Sandy, which hit the East Coast in 2012.

King tried the game of virtue signaling to try to paint himself as morally superior to Cruz, stating that he would vote to fund Hurricane Harvey recovery funding even though Cruz voted against the Sandy boondoggle:

Ted Cruz & Texas cohorts voted vs NY/NJ aid after Sandy but I'll vote 4 Harvey aid. NY wont abandon Texas. 1 bad turn doesnt deserve another

— Rep. Pete King (@RepPeteKing) August 27, 2017

As lifelong NYer w/ NY values I will vote for emergency Harvey $ for Ted Cruz's constituents. Above all, true Americans must stand together.

— Rep. Pete King (@RepPeteKing) August 27, 2017

In an interview on CNBC Monday, Cruz was originally dismissive of King’s slimy attacks:

“There’ll be plenty of time for politics and I’m not going to worry about political sniping. My focus here is on the tragedy that is unfolding, on the people whose lives are in jeopardy, and the people who need help. The silliness of Washington can wait for another time.”  

The reporter presses further, asking the Texas senator if he’d gained a “new perspective” now that the natural disaster has hit his home turf, trying to trap him into admitting that refusing to fund the Sandy bill was regrettable.

But Ted Cruz refused to take the bait, noting that two-thirds of the Sandy funding bill was pork-barrel spending completely unrelated to the disaster:

“No, of course not. As I said at the time, hurricane funding is a very important federal responsibility and I would have eagerly supported funding for that. But I didn’t think it was appropriate to engage in pork-barrel spending where two-thirds of that bill was unrelated spending that had nothing to do with Sandy and was simply politicians wasting money.”

“That shouldn’t happen. The focus of emergency relief shouldn’t be cynical politicians trying to fund their pet projects. It should be providing relief to people in crisis.”

Ted Cruz is correct, and Peter King should be ashamed of himself for the smear.

As the NY Post reported on December 15, 2012, the Sandy relief boondoggle included funding like $150 million for Alaska fisheries, $5.2 million for the Obama Department of Justice, and $2 million for the Smithsonian Institution in DC, which was unaffected by the hurricane.

The Post’s graphic provides an excellent summary:

Of course, if they wanted Ted Cruz’s vote, they could have removed the ridiculous waste, but that’s never an option for big government liberals like Peter King.

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