Sen. Ted Cruz today described President Obama’s move to shield 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation as essentially the same as counterfeiting.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” the Texas Republican said:

For 4 to 5 million people here illegally, he’s promising to print out and give out work authorizations — essentially, he’s gotten in the job of counterfeiting immigration papers, because there’s no legal authority to do what he’s doing.

Cruz, a vocal critic of Obama’s executive action to grant legal status to millions and make other changes to the immigration system, said the unilateral move tells future presidents they can write their own laws — “whether it’s immigration, whether it’s tax, whether it’s labor, whether it’s environmental.”

>>> What You Need to Know About Obama’s Executive Move on Immigration

In an interview aired today on ABC’s “This Week” that was taped Friday, Obama again countered that Republicans in Congress should pass their own immigration bill that would supersede his plan.

The president didn’t appear fazed by Cruz and other Republicans who have vowed to use a must-pass spending bill to withhold funding needed to carry out Obama’s immigration initiatives.

“There’s often a lot of rhetoric coming out of Congress and in Washington,” Obama said. “But it doesn’t match up to what I think the American people expect.”

The president charged that when House Republicans try to get their way, they prevent other issues from being addressed. He used Obamacare as an example:

What the American people expect is that if we disagree on one thing, then we disagree on that thing. And then we work on everything else. One of the habits that we’ve seen in Congress over the last four years since the House Republicans took over, is that everything becomes hostage to one disagreement.

When “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos mentioned that Republicans have said they don’t want a government shutdown, Obama replied: “Then we shouldn’t have a problem.”