Cruz tells Iowans his record differentiates him in GOP race

JOHNSTON - Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday he is counting on Republicans being able to discern from the records of 2016 GOP presidential candidates that he is the consistent conservative fighting 'in the foxhole” for religious liberty and other causes versus rivals who have made election-year conversions as 'campaign conservatives.”

During Sunday's taping of an Iowa Public Television 'Iowa Press” show that will air later in the week, Cruz said his campaign is focusing on policy differences within the 2016 field, but he will not be drawn into a media-induced 'food fight” with GOP rivals that might weaken the party's eventual nominee in next year's general election.

'The biggest difference between my record and that of everyone else is that I've been a consistent conservative, a social conservative, a fiscal conservative, a national security conservative,” he said, 'and people are looking for someone who doesn't just discover conservative values when they launch their campaign for president, but rather, as the Scripture says, ‘you shall know them by their fruits,' has been walking the walk consistently.”

Cruz, 44, a Harvard Law school graduate in his first term as U.S. senator, said he has led the fight to stop Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood, defend religious liberty, and oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants while waging a Ronald Reagan-style battle against the Washington 'cartel” of union bosses, giant corporations, lobbyists, the media, liberal activist judges, and career politicians from both parties.

'I think we've seen this in both of the first two debates, the distinction between campaign conservatives who talk a good game on the campaign trail but haven't walked the walk and a consistent conservative,” Cruz said. 'And I think that is the reason our campaign is getting so much momentum is that as people are starting to examine the records there are real differences among the candidates on records.”

The Republican from Houston, who the previous night told members of the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition that GOP congressional leaders in Washington are surrendering in the fight to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood by trying to 'pound us into submission,” said Sunday it is yet to be seen how the issue will play out.

Cruz said President Obama 'has taken a really extreme position” by telling Congress if he doesn't receive a federal budget with $500 million in taxpayer for Planned Parenthood – 'a private organization that he happens to favor politically” -- then he will veto funding for the entire federal government.

'Look, if Congress funds the entire government and the president vetoes funding for the government, it's not complicated who is shutting down the government, it is the person vetoing it saying, I will not allow the government to be funded unless this private organization that is subject to multiple criminal investigations gets $500 million,” he said.

'Now I understand the Democrat talking point, which sadly gets repeated a lot in the media, is you always blame a government shutdown on Republicans, even if it is Barack Obama vetoing the funding for partisan political reasons,” he added. 'But it isn't complicated that if he's vetoing the funding, it would be Obama shutting down the government and that would be a mistake.”

Cruz told the gathering of 1,400 evangelical and social conservatives Saturday night that on his first day as president, if elected, he would have the U.S. Department of Justice open a criminal investigation based on videos that he said purportedly show senior Planned Parenthood officials 'essentially admitting to a pattern of ongoing felonies” by selling the body parts of unborn children for profit.

In Iowa, Gov. Terry Branstad said last month that his administration had determined that that no state money goes for funding abortions in Iowa and most of the reimbursement money paid to the organization for family-planning and other services comes from federal sources. A March 2014 state memorandum identified several Planned Parenthood agencies in Iowa as enrolled Medicaid providers that were reimbursed for clinical services topping $5.5 million in fiscal 2012 and $6.3 million in fiscal 2013.

Asking during Sunday's IPTV taping if Branstad is doing enough in efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, Cruz said he would encourage every elected official to not be sending taxpayer funds to the organization.

'Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in America,” he said, 'and money is fungible. Saying you only put it in the left pocket and not the right pocket is the sort of distinction only a politician could love.”