Ted Cruz Doesn’t Show Up For Audit the Fed Bill, Vote Falls Short

Senator Rand Paul’s bill to Audit the Federal Reserve failed a cloture vote today, with 53 yeas to 44 nays. Three people didn’t vote.

One of them was Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

Senator Ted Cruz is a co-sponsor of the bill and yet was campaigning in New Hampshire instead of in the Senate voting. Even Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) was there voting and voted yea (he is also a co-sponsor of the bill) and has the missed the most votes this year.

This also comes after in CNBC’s debate, Ted Cruz bragged about being an original co-sponsor of Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bill, proclaiming, “I am an original co-sponsor of Ron Paul’s audit the Fed legislation.”

He also sponsored Rand Paul’s Audit the Fed, and then he didn’t bother to show up to vote for it.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) voted for the bill as well along with Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) was the only Republican to vote against it, while Senator Dan Coats (R-IN) was a no-show. Rand Paul had previously said this about Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren while lobbying for them to vote for the bill back in a conference call on Monday according to The Hill:

“We’ve had a lot of Democrats who claim that they’re concerned about big banks and big banks controlling things and a revolving door between Wall Street and big banks and the Federal Reserve. We’ll see if any of those loud voices — Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren — are they loud voices that really are for more oversight of the banking system?”

Elizabeth Warren ended up voting against the bill.

Rand Paul and Ron Paul have been blasting Ted Cruz over this.

“Ted Cruz says he is for Auditing the Fed, but when the Senate voted on Rand’s bill, Ted was nowhere to be found,” Ron Paul said on Twitter.

Ted Cruz was criticized for missing the vote on Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s confirmation, where he said ,”Absence is the equivalent of a no vote.”

Does it hold here as well?