Sen. Ted Cruz On Obamacare: President Obama And Sen. Harry Reid Are 'Essentially Holding The Military Hostage'

Sen. Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz, R-Texas, appeared on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday morning, four days after the end of his 21-hour filibuster in an effort to derail the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

Since Cruz’s filibuster, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives has passed a government spending bill that would delay Obamacare for one year and repeal a medical device tax. The Senate Democratic leadership vowed to reject the House bill, continuing the deadlock in Congress as the midnight Monday nears.

With a government shutdown looming, “Meet the Press” moderator David Gregory asked Cruz, “A government shutdown under these circumstances, because this doesn’t sound like it’s going to be resolved, that’s an acceptable outcome to you?”

“Look I don’t want a government shutdown," Cruz replied. "I don’t think that [Majority Leader] Harry Reid should shut down the government. The House of Representatives did something terrific last night, which is they passed a bill to make clear that regardless of what happens, the men and women of our military should be paid.”

Cruz described the stance taken by Reid and President Barack Obama, as “essentially holding the military hostage.”

“We shouldn’t have a shutdown, which means Harry Reid has to move off his absolutist position,” Cruz added.

Gregory responded, “You have lost ground from even the summer on the position of getting people to vote with you, and you haven’t persuaded one Democrat. You got to have Democrats if you’re going to overturn this thing. ”

“You’ve got politicians in both parties who aren’t listening to the people and who are living by a different set of rules," Cruz replied. "The ruling class gets exempted. At a minimum, members of Congress shouldn’t be treated better than the American people, and neither should big business.”

Watch the full interview in the videos above.