Boze on Obamacare, Cruz marathon: ‘We must not, can not, end up there’
Sep 25, 2013, 2:06 PM | Updated: Oct 14, 2024, 12:27 pm
David Boze says Sen. Ted Cruz should have picked something other than "Green Eggs and Ham" for his marathon Senate stall on Obamacare. (AP image)
(AP image)
Senator Ted Cruz managed to stand and talk for over 21 hours in his valiant yet futile effort to strip funding for Obamacare from a spending bill. But his reading of Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” early in the all-night marathon is what’s being talked about most and what will be remembered long after. And 770 KTTH host David Boze says it was also one of his big mistakes.
“Here’s what struck me about choosing that particular book … the overall message from President Obama when it comes to Obamacare was what? What is it that Obama wants us to believe?”
Boze says Cruz played right into the president’s hands, picking a classic story about vehemently disliking something before trying it. After all, at the end of the story, the main character admits liking Green Eggs and Ham after finally giving in to Sam-I-Am and giving them a try.
The perceived misstep sparked Boze to craft his own Seuss-like prose.
“He [Obama] thinks the American people, including Ted Cruz are saying ‘I do not like Obamacare. I do not like what you’ve put there. I do not like your new mandate, I do not like to pay this rate. I do not like just part- time work. I do not like the Congress perks. I do not like Obamacare, we must not, can not end up there,” says Boze in his ode to Dr. Seuss.
“And then Obama is the guy stepping forward to say ‘try it, use it GOP, you will love it just like me.”
Boze isn’t the only one with his own take on the beloved story. David Plouffe, a former senior White House adviser and the president’s campaign manager in 2008 tweeted:
Ted would not go to bed. Hoping to strengthen Tea Party cred. To Iowa he soon fled. But Obamacare will never be dead.
— David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) September 25, 2013
Cruz says he wasn’t trying to make a point reading the story, but just selected something he could read for his daughters as they laid in bed back home watching him on C-SPAN.
“It just was my favorite story as a kid,” he told reporters as he left the Capitol Wednesday at the end of his marathon session. “And my girls like it.”
“‘Green Eggs and Ham’ has a moral: don’t criticize something, don’t reject something, until you actually try it,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at a press conference after Cruz left the Senate floor.
Still, Boze has plenty of praise for Cruz’s efforts, despite knowing he wouldn’t be successful. “The explosion of the Tea Party all started with one guy on a cable TV show just shouting out we need a tea party,” Boze says. “It jump started and inspired a number of people to get out on the streets and protest and let their elected officials know and it got them to donate and work for candidates they believed in.”
Maybe Cruz should have gone with Obama as the Grinch, instead. Then again, even his heart softened at the end.
