SANTA CRUZ

While you were sleeping, Ted Cruz was working on the ultimate Christmas Present. Up until now, members of congress were facing two horrible options. They could vote to elect Joe Biden, despite the evidence of systemic fraud, and even though he is obviously incapable of doing the job, or they could overturn the results of the election and re-elect Donald Trump. Neither option is easy to swallow.

So, Cruz came up with plan C, credibility. He proposed a special panel of 5 Representatives, 5 Senators and 5 Supreme Court Justices to do an emergency audit of the November 3, 2020 election in six states. That is exactly what congress did in 1876. Cruz did his homework. This panel would present the report to congress and the final decision on the 2020 election will be made then.

Keep in mind that Ted Cruz, is by far, the member of congress who understands the United States Constitution best. Even Democrats who hate him acknowledge that. He has proposed something that should be acceptable to all sides. Democrats will, predictably, hate this and resist, but they are between a rock and a hard space. If they are so sure there is no evidence of fraud, they should welcome this approach. If they scream that this is unfair, they will look like they have something to hide. If evidence of fraud becomes obvious later, it could destroy the Democratic Party. Republicans will also hate this, and resist, but it a better option than seeing Joe Biden become President of the United States.

Ironically, the Georgia January 5th run-off elections helps this plan regardless of what happens. If Republicans win handily, then Cruz will immediately gain two new recruits. If Republicans lose, or there is another multi-day vote counting fiasco, then the outrage will reach the heavens. A lot of people think Democrats stole the Presidential election; they will not tolerate Democrats stealing control of the Senate using the same technique. So, either way, the Cruz approach will start to look very attractive, to a lot of people, on both sides of the aisle.

Sometimes the smartest person in the room, is the one who when presented with one of two horrible options says: “neither.” Cruz asked the one question no one else dared to ask or even consider. What if we don’t vote to either accept or reject the vote by the electoral college?

This reminds me of when the company I was working for purchased a chain of wholesale grocery stories. The parent company had a high experience modification, but the company purchased had a low experience mod. That meant they were paying a lot less money for Workers’ Compensation Insurance. The state was loudly demanding that I complete a form, called an ERM 14, verifying the former and current ownership of the firm. If I filled out that form, it would have increased the modification and the rates by about 50%. But the state was demanding that I complete this form, “or else.” I finally asked the most important question of all: “What did ‘or else” mean.” I got conflicting answers from our broker and from our legal counsel, but both said this was not an option. I didn’t like that answer, so I called the state department in charge of this and asked them. “What if we don’t fill out the ERM 14.” I was huffily advised that under those circumstances, we would be rated manually and not get an experience modification for at least three years. I hung up the phone, smiled, and threw the ERM 14 form in the trash. The state punished me by giving us a manual modification of 1.00, which was about 50% less than if I had filled out the form.

By the way, the next year I took that company self-insured, set up our own claim department, and our loss experience dropped significantly. Handling claims in-house was the ultimate solution to the high cost of claims. In addition, we were able to provide better coverage for our employees while also saving money.

I do not know if Cruz can pull this off, but this sure looks like a better option than anything else proposed. It is always risky to predict congress doing the right thing for the right reason, but this should appeal to a lot of people, in both parties, even if only for purely selfish reasons.  This certainly seems more likely that Republicans having enough spine surgery over the weekend to enable them to stand up to the Democrats.

In any event, Senator Cruz has given us all a great gift. He has given everyone an out. Let’s hope wiser heads prevail and seize the day.

TDM