Cruz, McConnell battle to influence freshmen Republicans

Market Watch ^ | Jan 8, 2015 7:45 a.m. ET

[SoConPubbie]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A battle is shaping up between Sens. Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell.

McConnell, the Senate majority leader, and Cruz, the conservative firebrand, are competing for influence among the Senate’s 12 Republican freshmen. The outcome, writes the Hill, will potentially shape the agenda for 2015 and beyond. Cruz has reached out to freshman Republicans in hopes they will join his effort to pressure GOP leaders to pursue what he calls a “bold agenda.” McConnell, meanwhile, has consistently told colleagues the only way they can have an impact is by getting legislation to President Barack Obama’s desk. That means pushing proposals on jobs and the economy that can win Democratic support.

Obamacare a Senate test: On Thursday, the House will vote again to lengthen Obamacare’s definition of a full-time workweek to 40 hours. But the Senate, Politico reports, has work to do before it can hope to get its first anti-Obamacare bill to the president’s desk. McConnell has said the workweek bill is at the top of the GOP’s Obamacare priorities, along with repealing a tax on the medical-device industry. But an immediate slam dunk could be elusive. Backers of the workweek bill say there aren’t yet the 60 votes needed to bring it to the Senate floor.

SOTU preview: President Obama is on the road this week, offering previews of some of the proposals he’ll offer in his Jan. 20 State of the Union address. The tour, as The Wall Street Journal reports, began in Michigan and will head to Arizona and Tennessee. It’s an effort to lay the groundwork for executive actions and legislative policy proposals on issues including housing, manufacturing and higher education. The Journal says Obama’s pitch on the road is a newly aggressive

[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[SoConPubbie]

Ted Cruz Ping!

If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.

Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!

[Diogenesis]

As the House betrayal revealed,
no one, and no country, should bet their lives
on the betraying, lying, deceptive, Obama-supporting,
EXEMPT GOP.

[lodi90]

Backers of the workweek bill say there aren’t yet the 60 votes needed to bring it to the Senate floor.

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Nice to see Reid is still running the Senate. I’m sure Mitch doesn’t mind since he has corner office now.

[PoloSec]

I sounds as though repeal of obamacare is a non-starter, repeal should be the first out the gate, but it looks like they have opted to fix it, it can’t be fixed every change in one place worsens the adverse effects in several other places.

The republican party’s funeral was on 1/6/15, after suffering a long brutal terminal illness, many think they can resurrect the party by fixing obamacare, but that effort just continues to confirm the party is dead, dead.

[Diogenesis]

The EXEMPT love RomneyCARE/ObamaCARE,
and the EXEMPT GOP created it (a la Romney).

All others outside of the EXEMPT are below them
(except Islam which is also EXEMPT).

[stephenjohnbanker]

You covered the situation quite well.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Can Mitch McConnell keep Ted Cruz from becoming de facto Senate majority leader?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/08/1356347/-Can-Mitch-McConnell-keep-Ted-Cruz-from-becoming-de-facto-Senate-majority-leader?detail=hide#