Posted on 09/21/2013 11:44:50 AM PDT by Jim Robinson
WASHINGTON Ted Cruz and Mike Lee stand as the Senates dynamic duo for conservatives, crusading against President Barack Obamas health care law while infuriating many congressional Republicans with a tactic they consider futile, self-serving and detrimental to the partys political hopes in 2014.
Cruz, the Texan whos been anything but a wait-your-turn freshman, and Lee, the tea party-backed giant slayer from Utahs 2010 election, spent months this summer pressuring Republicans to link any stopgap spending bill to keep the government running with permanently starving President Barack Obamas health overhaul of money.
The two former Supreme Court clerks are determined to reverse what the conservative court of Chief Justice John Roberts upheld in 2012 Obamas signature domestic law.
The senators scored a win Friday when the Republican-led House, pushed by rambunctious rank-and-file members, passed a spending measure that would unravel the law. But the approach faces near-certain defeat in the Democratic-controlled Senate, where lawmakers in both parties complain that Cruz and Lee have pushed a losing cause.
In the meantime, their strategy has roiled many in the GOP, with plenty of public and private carping. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, subtly challenged Cruz and Lee to back up their words next week.
I expect my Senate colleagues to be up for the battle, Boehner said.
Several Republicans complain that the tactic could lead to a government shutdown on Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year, that would undercut the GOP politically...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Love that!!
Don't forget his sidekick Boehner. He's almost as bad.
And still no cave after the senate amends the bill and sends it back to the house. That’s the real strategy. The house must reject whatever the senate sends back that enables obamacare to go forward. Then they must send “clean” funding bills to fund each essential department, one by one. And reject what the senate sends back if they amend it. Do this all they way to 2014 if necessary. Hold the line! Defund obamacare!
Obama/Reid can try, but they cannot shutdown the essential government services. The government will go on, just cost less. Possibly a whole lot less.
The piecemeal fallback strategy is a good one. But perhaps Obama could also fund his healthcare takeover by selling more debt indirectly or directly to the Federal Reserve. Thus, the debt ceiling battle is also critical.
On the bottom of the dontfundobamacare petition there is a list of all of the Republcian US Senators, with phone numbers and categorized as “will pledge” , “won’t pledge” or it’s blank if they haven’t said anything yet. What they need is a few million calls and emails.
Since when has the WaPo had the interests of Republicans at heart? Why should Republicans care about anything that they have to say?
Macaca!
-PJ
Hold fast GOP, so far you're doing the right thing. Don't buckle, force the dems to defend an unpopular and destructive health care debacle. Make sure to remind everyone that it's the dems who would shut down the government over a law that will ruin our healthcare system and the economy plus ruin the future of our kids and grandkids.
I suspect Boehner/Ryan will cave on the debt ceiling non-fight like they did in the past. Sadly, they do not have the skills (or the balls) necessary to win the debate.
David Brooks is right.
We have 45 in the House and 4-5 Senators.
Time to split. Gotta start somewhere. Declare a Liberty Party, raise the flag in time to contest all 435 seats in 2014, and let’s have at it.
Amen, Jim.
It is the initial shot in the final communist takeover of America.
Signed.
FUDB! Statists are never right!
We have not yet begun to fight!
The fact that it infuriates them rather than inspires them to openly ally with the Democrats shows that they know a large part of the Republican electorate is against them. If this was 2014 and it was too late to primary them out they might try to run this through over Cruz, but they know the RINO hold over the party exists only because of the "...would you rather vote for a Democrat?" threat. They can't pull that this year because there will be primary threats.
See post 11 and go to that site for a list of candidates.
Brooks is the enemy.
I like the strategy, but I think they need to be prepared to go to the mattresses. That means smashing the debt ceiling. I don’t think either side really much cares if the government gets shut down for awhile. But their bankster cronies do care about getting paid.
If the debt ceiling is smashed, that’ll put dear leader in the position of having to decide who gets paid. It’s a safe bet that the banksters will get their interest payments. It’s also a safe bet that Federal employees and the military won’t get paid. Where it gets interesting is when he gets to decide if the social security recipients get paid or not or if the ghetto rats get their EBT cards plussed up or not.
You see, the other side counts on us always backing down and rolling over in time to do the “right thing.” I.e. to make sure the bills are paid. It’s time for the other side to worry about doing the “right thing” for once.
In the mean time, the other side needs to truly perceive us as lunatics who are willing to not only cross the line but giggle madly while we do it.
“In short, it is of the Devil, himself.”
Oh it’s even worse than that. Don’t worry about deathcare if the gop caves. Worry about a lot of mightily pi$$ed off conservatives deciding that they not only don’t have a voice in DC, but that they shouldn’t waste any more time with it at all.
That doesn’t sound that bad. Until you consider that they will take this to the states, and national divorce will be the next strategy.
The seceshers are waiting in the wings for the gop to capitulate.
“I believe the Cruz/Lee plan is working!”
Indeed it is. And in ways that will surprise us. Just a small example from this morning: for the first time I saw someone on a freeway overpass with “IMPEACH OBAMA” signs.
Courage begets courage.
Well, I hope so too, but you know they (Boehner/Ryan et al) caved easily in the last debt ceiling pillow fight. Hope they’ve boned up for the fight this time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.