Ted Cruz rips ‘lobbyist boondoggle’ spending bill while smoking a cigar

“While you were with your family, while you were shopping for Christmas, the lobbyists were spending and spending. I present to you, the massive omnibus bill that Congress is voting on,” Cruz continued while smoking a cigar.

Cruz, 48, showed the camera marked papers, highlighting what he views as some of the worst spending measures proposed by the vote scheduled for before Congress wrapped up for the holidays.

“Here’s one thing,” Cruz said. “It extends the EX-IM bank — one of the greatest corporate boondoggles, corporate welfare. The lobbyists love it. For seven years, the EX-IM bank is extended with no vote on it.”

Omnibus spending bills take smaller appropriations bills and package them into one piece of legislation that can be passed with a single vote in each chamber of Congress. Fellow Republicans Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie have also complained about last-minute spending bills that are expedited through Congress without having been read.

“Buried in here, it raises the tobacco purchasing age to 21,” Cruz continued. “So now, our soldiers, at age 18, you can be drafted to go into war, you can be sent to the front lines, you can face machine-gun fire, but God help you if you want to have a smoke.”

Cruz pointed to legislation that will change the legal age to purchase cigarettes from 18 to 21 and also a provision that would fund gun control research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It funds government research on gun control,” said Cruz. “Mind you, last I checked, exercising your Second Amendment rights is not a virus that the Center for Disease Control should be studying, but now, we’ve got millions of dollars funding bogus studies that are going to be used to try and take away your constitutional rights.”