(Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) As Democrats backed down from their effort to partially close the federal government over a dispute about immigration, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz encountered some severe resistance from reporters after he tried to claim that he had never favored using shut downs as a negotiating tactic even though he was the primary instigator of the last federal stoppage in 2013. Back during that conflict, Cruz was the chief Senate ally of the House Freedom Caucus, a very conservative group of Representatives who said they would not keep the government running if a temporary “continuing resolution” under consideration included funding for the Affordable Care Act.