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The GOP’s anger at Sen. Ted Cruz — expressed mostly in private meetings this week — burst onto the usually collegial Senate floor on Thursday, with Sen. Bob Corker excoriating his Texas Republican colleague for blocking a quick vote to avert a government shutdown next week. In a highly unusual Republican v. Republican exchange, Corker accused Cruz of delaying a Thursday vote simply to create a “show” to cater to his conservative activist supporters at the expense of making good policy. -snip- Cruz shot back. “Why is Majority Leader Harry Reid going to vote the same way you’re proposing to...

WASHINGTON — Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker called out fellow Republicans Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah Thursday, accusing them of delaying a vote on the bill to fund the government and prevent a government shutdown to suit their own desires for publicity. Cruz, earlier this week, held the floor for over 21 hours, speaking in defense of defunding Obamacare with that government funding bill. He asked other Republican senators to join him in voting against moving forward on a bill passed by the House, which would fund the government while defunding Obamacare

Audio at link. (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Ted Cruz (R.-Texas) said today on a conference call the even if the Senate passes a continuing resolution that permits funding of Obamacare the fight to defund it is not over--because Obamacare cannot be funded unless the Republican-controlled House of Representatives agrees to do it. “House Republicans can, and I believe should, continue to stand their ground,” said Cruz. “And, so, if the House holds firm, Harry Reid has no ability to muscle the House of Representatives—if they stand their ground.” Cruz said that the cloture vote the Senate will hold Friday on the...

Harry Reid plans to use a procedural trick to fund Obamacare with only 50 votes, but first he needs 6 Republican votes on "cloture" to approve the process. Tell the Republicans to OPPOSE cloture to stop Harry Reid's plan to fund Obamacare. Tell them a vote for cloture is a vote to fund Obamacare. NOTE: Some Republicans may say a vote for cloture is a vote against Obamacare. It is not. If cloture were truly a vote against Obamacare, the Democrats wouldn't be supporting it. Cloture will allow the Democrats to fund Obamacare.

Today, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) explained that Senate Republicans have the votes to prevent Sen. Harry Reid from reinstating funding for Obamacare in the House continuing resolution if they will stay unified. Republicans only need 41 votes to block Reid from using procedural tricks to put Obamacare funding back in the bill. “House Republicans showed tremendous courage and unity in voting to fund government, avoid a shut down, and protect the American people from the harmful effects of Obamacare,” said Sen. Lee. “Senate Republicans have the ability to show that same courage by staying unified and together opposing cloture on...

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said Thursday the expectation Republicans in Congress have raised about defunding Obamacare is “not intellectually honest.” -snip- Coburn actualy gave Obama credit for reducing some government waste. “I’ve got to give the president credit. His budget this year at least addressed a few of those issues that [the Governmental Accountability Office] has raised. Congress hasn’t addressed any of them,” he said.

Rep. Peter T. King said Thursday that Sen. Ted Cruz is a “false leader” who is peddling a “false bill of goods” in the debate over defunding Obamacare and said Mr. Cruz, Texas Republican, has tapped into a “dark strain in the American political psyche.” -snip- “I don’t think it is possible to heal tensions with Ted Cruz,” Mr. King said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

On Morning Joe Thursday morning, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) tepidly praised Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his symbolic filibuster, before severely criticizing his “intellectually dishonest” tactics to defund ObamaCare that Coburn said were misleading Republican voters. “I’m finishing up nine years in the Senate,” Coburn said. “Nobody has a higher conservative rating than I do. I’m now no longer a conservative according to the standards that have been set by the expectation of this process.” “I’m getting all sorts of e-mails from people that supported me, because they have been misled about what’s possible.” Coburn said. “Do people not think...

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn criticized Texas’ Sen. Ted Cruz for misleading the American people over Obamacare. “To create the impression that we can actually defund Obamacare, when the only thing we control, and barely, is the House of Representatives, is not intellectually honest,” Coburn said on Thursday’s Morning Joe.

As Ted Cruz continued to hold the Senate floor, his senior GOP colleague from Texas was calling in to local radio stations expressing general support for the effort while noting a significant tactical disagreement. “Ted’s been a great addition to the United States Senate,” Sen. John Cornyn said on KTSA. “He and I were dove hunting in Hondo this weekend together and we both agree that we need to defund and delay and defeat Obamacare to protect the American people.” But Cornyn, the Republican whip, is in the camp along with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that plans to support...

-snip- And so, if Harry Reid says, you know what, I'm going to run the Republicans over. I'm going to ignore the bill passed by the House of Representatives, I'm going to ignore the will of the people and I'm going to do this on a 51-vote threshold -- then, from my mind, it should be easy decision for Senate Republicans to stand united and to support House Republicans. And I'll tell you, any vote for cloture, any vote to allow Harry Reid to add funding for ObamaCare with just a 51-vote threshold, a vote for cloture is a vote...

The Club For Growth stood with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) Tuesday, calling for senators to vote against cloture on a stopgap spending bill that passed the House last week. The conservative, anti-tax group said it would it include the vote on its 2013 scorecard. "To keep the House defund language secure, and to continue using the leverage of the continuing resolution, opponents of ObamaCare should vote "NO" on the cloture vote to end debate," wrote the group's vice president of government affairs Andy Roth in a note to congressional offices.

A number of Sen. Ted Cruz's colleagues on Tuesday expressed frustration at the Texas Republican's tactics in the fight over ObamaCare and government funding. As Cruz prepared to speak for hours on the Senate floor to try to delay work on the government-funding measure, many fellow GOP senators exited a conference meeting said they thought his strategy would backfire on their party. -snip- Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine.) Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.)

This is an urgent update on the fight to stop funding Obamacare. Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and John Cornyn (R-TX) — the top two Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate — announced yesterday that they will support "cloture" on the government funding bill, giving Harry Reid and the Democrats a procedural green light to fund Obamacare with only 50 votes. Mitch McConnell and John CornynBreitbart News is reporting that McConnell and Cornyn are using their leadership positions to pressure other Republicans to oppose Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) in their effort to defund Obamacare. According to a...

Rand Paul is standing with Ted Cruz. The Kentucky GOP senator will oppose a vote to end debate later this week on a House-passed spending bill, which includes a provision defunding Obamacare, a spokeswoman said. Cruz (R-Texas) is urging Republican senators to halt the bill procedurally later this week to prevent Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) from removing the Obamacare provision and pushing a clean spending bill back to the House this weekend. Paul also joined Cruz on the Senate floor Tuesday as Cruz mounted an hours-long speech in opposition to the Affordable Care Act.

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — Sen. Ted Cruz began a filibuster Tuesday with the intent of defunding the Affordable Care Act, known also as Obamacare. The Texas Republican noted while on the Senate floor, “I intend to speak about defunding ObamaCare until I am unable to stand.” Cruz additionally asserted that Democrats are not listening to their constituents in regards to the health care law, which is set to take effect Oct. 1. “I rise today in opposition to ObamaCare in an effort to speak for 26 million Texans and 300 million Americans,” Cruz asserted. “It is time quite frankly to make...

Senate Republicans want to speed up the debate over the stopgap spending measure in order to give Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) enough time to make a counteroffer to Senate Democrats...... [SNIP] At a special meeting held in the Strom Thurmond Room, GOP senators discussed speeding up the debate in the upper chamber this week. “There were a lot of us that thought giving the House some time to send back another policy,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). “There was a lot of discussion about giving back time on the motion to proceed so that possibly the House wouldn’t be jammed...

So House Republicans have passed and sent to the Senate a budget that includes no funding for the Affordable Care Act, setting up a political showdown that could result in a government shutdown. We wish the GOP luck, since we support the policy if not the strategy. [Snip] That starts with Senators Mike Lee (Utah) and Ted Cruz (Texas), who joined with a handful of conservative groups to force Speaker John Boehner's hand. In July they had vowed to mobilize a grass-roots "army" to support ObamaCare repeal. The legions never arrived, but the activists still insisted that any continuing resolution...

There is a problem, and it has 100 members, two from each state.

This has been the worst time, politically, for President Barack Obama since he took office. Recent polls reveal that public confidence in both his domestic and foreign policies has been falling, amid revelations about their defects and dangers. Even people who once supported and defended him have now turned against him. There have even been rumblings against Barack Obama in the Congressional Black Caucus and among labor unions that were a major factor in helping him get elected and re-elected. Two of President Obama's own former Secretaries of Defense have publicly criticized his gross mishandling of the Syria crisis, which...