As of this writing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell still doesn't have a simple majority of just Republican votes for his "skinny" stimulus measure and, according to the Washington Post, Senator Ted Cruz is one reason why.
You may recognize Cruz as one of the earliest voices of opposition against passing any new stimulus spending at all, but that's not why he's dividing his own caucus.
The Post reports that Cruz has been lobbying in favor of another tax cut for rich people.
A fight over Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s plan to subsidize private school tuition is threatening to derail a Senate GOP effort to write a slimmed-down coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks said this week.
The $5 billion tax credit proposal has long been championed by DeVos, and President Trump has offered his support for school choice as part of his reelection campaign. Now the measure is being pushed behind the scenes by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who wants the proposal included in an emerging Senate GOP bill that aims to address economic fallout from the coronavirus.
But his move is opposed by a number of other members of the Senate Republican conference — some on the merits, others for strategic reasons. They will need to resolve the impasse to finalize the legislation.
Senator Ted Cruz is ideologically opposed to additional stimulus spending unless it includes a tax credit for people with enough money to send their kids to private school in the first place.
Republicans including DeVos say this would give parents more choices at a time when the coronavirus has made public school less attractive, but that's her goal. She thinks public school should be less attractive and the Trump regime has done nothing to support public schools while pushing them to reopen for in-person classes. Furthermore, people who can afford private school have already made that choice. This wouldn't open up new choices for anyone because a tax credit still requires you to front-load the cost.
For Ted Cruz, I have no doubt that he sees this as a way to subsidize religious institutions.
In any case, Ted Cruz is waging this battle over a pitiful stimulus bill that will never become law. Cruz's own proposal will never become law even if he successfully forces it into the "skinny" stimulus bill.
Republicans are not serious people and you should never vote for them.