Posted on 09/23/2013 7:37:48 PM PDT by Qbert
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will not join an effort in the Senate to block a House-passed spending bill that defunds Obamacare, a spokesman for McConnell said Monday.
Sen. McConnell supports the House Republicans bill and will not vote to block it, since it defunds Obamacare and funds the government without increasing spending by a penny. He will also vote against any amendment that attempts to add Obamacare funding back into the House Republicans bill, said Don Stewart, a spokesman for the Republican senator.
The statement represents a divergence from the approach favored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), who want Republicans to oppose a procedural vote on the House bill before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to strip out the Obamacare defunding provision by a majority vote.
If and when the majority leader goes down that path, Washington Democrats will have to decide without hiding behind a procedural vote whether or not to split with their leadership and join Republicans and their constituents in opposing the re-insertion of Obamacare funding into the House-passed bill, Stewart added.
A spokeswoman for McConnells top lieutenant, Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, said that Cornyn too will break with Cruz and Lee.
Sen. Cornyn will not block a bill that defunds Obamacare, the spokeswoman said.
They both protect the power of DC above any other objective.
Just paving the way to say “beat again, nothing we could do, sure Senators Cruz and Lee had a plan but it wouldn’t have worked either”
"I believe the Republican party is in even more trouble than some people are thinking...It is consuming its own, and with absolutely no help from the leadership, both national and state organizations, the GOPes, the moderates and RINOs...It is clear the Republican Parties heyday is long gone in American politics..."
I think the Republican Party effectively died around 2006. The only success stories "it" has had since the time resulted from the Tea Party. The GOP is just an exhausted, incoherent mess. The only energy is with the Tea Party.
Here’s another angle:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/canary-coal-mine_756591.html
I hope the Senate Dems keep their Obamacare exemption. That is something we can beat them over the head with in 2014 & it can be an issue in 2016.
No exemptions for politicians and their cronies.
The bar has been set so low nowadays, as if the Republican leadership thinks that being just a little better than the Demonrat candidate is good enough to be a statesman.
And when a well qualified and competent candidate like Ted Cruz runs, it's an uphill battle against the GOP machine and Demonrat corruption. And when elected the GOP establishment still fights against him.
Trying to give 'em hell!
I’ve been trying to call Cornyn’s office for two days and the line is always busy or the “mail box” is full. But, I told his staff a couple of weeks back that I would be watching his actions on this issue very carefully. The staff member, at that time, said Cornyn had not made a decision on whether to support defunding in the CR. I also told the staff member that if the Senator does not support defunding of Obamacare in the CR he would not get my vote or support if he runs for office again. I suspect he is not going to run again.
I just emailed Cornyn, urging him to vote to defund socialized medicine. Not that I really expect him to listen.
Keep trying!!!
I made the point yesterday (before everything became "full") that cloture = funding. If he funds it...he owns it. At this point I don't even get a canned response.
I haven't been this fired up in years. This is the time. If Obamacare is not stopped prior to 10/1 I think we lose.
I think they are compromised or bought.
Will they listen to We the People? Most won't, unless they think we will remember at the next election. Some of US defiantly WILL.
Thank you for the pings, my friends.
No, I do not mind multi-pings. [smiles]
Sorry about that. That is a problem with State Ping Lists. I am one of 3 that keep in touch to maintain a complete list.
Voting FOR cloture is the same as voting FOR the bill, even if the senator votes AGAINST the bill.
Everyone in the country should understand that. It’s basic civics.
Whoops. I guess we were all jumping to alert the whole community. This thing has alarm bells ringing all over the place. I've never gotten so many pings to the same story/issue.
It's all good. We've got a lot of calls to make to stop the sneaks in the Senate.
Please do not apologize. It’s my own fault that I am on two Texas lists and the Ted Cruz list.
And thank you again. [smiles]
Here's my try at an explanation, subject to correction by others.
Cloture, that is, closing the debate, currently requires 60 votes in the Senate. To defeat cloture, you therefore need 100-60+1= 41 votes. Harry Reid is threatening to change the cloture rule to a simple majority of 50 plus the Vice President as a tie-breaker = 51 votes, but that is unlikely at this point and the Reps would make the Dems pay a severe political price for doing it.
Passing a bill requires a simple majority of 50+1= 51 votes, as explained above.
Cruz alerted us that Reid is planning to strip the Obamacare defunding language from the House bill (or add back Obamacare funding) and attempt to pass that amended bill in the Senate. This would send the amended bill to the House/Senate conference committee and could result in the House voting on this amended bill with Obamacare defund removed. Then the concern is that Boehner may ignore the "majority of the majority rule", or the "Hasert Rule", an informal "de facto" rule which currently prevents Boehner from introducing a bill that does not have the support of a majority of the Republican caucus. The House could then pass the amended Continuing Resolution funding the government's operations without defunding Obamacare.
Therefore, if such an amended bill comes before the Senate, at least 41 Republican senators must vote no on debate cloture. McConnell and Cornyn have said that they will vote no on any CR that does not defund Obamacare. That, of course, accomplishes nothing. They will vote for cloture, allowing a vote, and then vote against the bill, which Reid will easily win, since it only requires a majority vote. McConnell and Cornyn can say that they voted to defund Obamacare come primary time. However, the only opportunity to defund Obamacare is to vote no on cloture. That is the one and only vote that counts and McConnell and Cornyn are saying that they will vote the wrong way. Of course they dress it up in language that sounds like they are fighting to defund Obamacare.
Cruz and Lee must explain this to voters so that they are not deceived. Constituents must let their Senators know that they are on to this game, that they fully understand it, and that they will support a primary of any Republican senator that tries to pull this sleight of hand on his supporters.
I hope that this helps. Your message to Cornyn should be that you understand these procedures, as do your Republican friends, and that any yes (yea) vote on cloture will cause you and your friends to actively support a primary opponent against Senator Cornyn. That is the only language that they understand.
Why is the GOPe pulling these stunts? They're chicken shit.
p.s. If the amended bill got back to the House and Boehner ignored the “Hasert Rule”, then the CR would pass with Democrat (Pelosi) support, even though the Tea Party caucus votes no. Beyond funding Obamacare, this would split the House Republican caucus, which needs to be united in future battles with the Democrats.
Thank you. I think the key is that if they do pass cloture, then the rules allow the Senate to pass the bill by a smaller margin of votes than if cloture is not passed.( If I’m understanding what Sen Cruz has explained tonight.)That is the key. So then the Repubs can vote against it, knowing it would still not pass, and they would not have to deal with any political issues that might come up if the bill was stopped in the Senate. In other words the Rinos really don’t want to stop Obamacare. :(
he chose poorly
Chose poorly indeed. That will cost him his Senate seat.
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