Posted on 09/26/2013 8:02:50 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Senator Ted Cruz’s 21-hour effort Tuesday and Wednesday drew derision from both inside and outside the halls of the Capitol. But Cruz’s allies tell National Review Online that they hope his “talking filibuster” could end up being a game-changer in the Senate.
Advocates of the defund effort are pushing for Senate Republicans to vote against cloture on the House-written CR on Friday, in an effort to keep Reid from adding an amendment to strip the bill of the provision that defunds the Affordable Care Act. It would take 41 votes to prevent cloture, and there’s nowhere near that much support for their move right now. That’s where the Cruzibuster or what have you comes in.
“There’s sort of this conventional wisdom that the fight’s over in the Senate, and nothing’s further from the truth,” says Dan Holler of Heritage Action, one of the groups most involved in the efforts to defund the president’s health-care law.
Sources in the push for the defunding of the Affordable Care Act see a path to victory that goes roughly like this: Cruz gives an impressive performance on the Senate floor (check), grassroots activists are galvanized by the event (check), there’s an outpouring of grassroots pressure on Republican senators (to be seen), and as a result, 41 Republicans decide to vote against cloture on the House CR (also to be seen).
That means the next two days are a pretty big deal for defunding advocates.
“We have a lot of work to do in 48 hours,” Holler says, “so the difference between this and August recess was that the senators are up here in Washington and sort of isolated from their constituents. So if constituents are able to get through and deliver the message, then I’m pretty sure we’ll prevail.”
Holler says that he thinks between 15 and 20 senators currently plan to vote against cloture, though most haven’t said so publicly. If about half of the Republican conference publicly opposes the cloture vote, then the remaining undecided senators will feel significant pressure to join Cruz and his cohorts, he says. That’s a lot of ground to cover in not a lot of time, but Holler and others are optimistic.
“It’s amazing how smart people outside Washington are,” he says. “They get the fact that a vote in favor of cloture is a vote to give Harry Reid power; they understand that. Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Lee have built up a ton of trust in the conservative movement, and it’s going to be difficult for senators to say, “I’m not standing with Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and others.”
That remains to be seen. A Senate GOP aide who spoke with National Review Online anonymously says his boss hasn’t yet decided how to vote on cloture despite getting “non-stop phone calls” yesterday. The senator’s office received about a thousand phone calls that day pushing for his boss to vote with Lee and Cruz.
Cruz brought the ugly truth about Obamacare to light.
Harry Reid is wrong 100% of the time. He's a statistical oddity. I wonder if his system would reject him if he ever spoke that wasn't a lie.
Proven Federal Fact: The only way to balance the US Federal Spending and Income within the next two years is to execute this two step process:
1.) DEFUND Obamacare in 2013; and
2.) ABOLISH Obamacare, Democratcare, and Republicancare in the first month of 2014.
______________________
BTW US Congress men and women, failure to do BOTH of these timely steps will insure that your replacements will gladly do it for you.
It is all about the money, stupid - - - OUR taxpayer money!
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick ———
3) IMPEACH the bastard!!!
He never says ‘what’s next’
Right now:
Contact your Representative and say you won’t accept Boehner letting a few RINOs (or ‘Moderates” if you want to be extremely polite) join the dems to fund it.
Won’t accept a “show vote” funding of Obamacare like the Senate is doing.
Next step? Fight and get solidly on record as being against it, then move in after the Uniparty forces it through in favor of whomever tit is they are working for
Then, while they’re at it, get rid of the parent of obamacare, LBJs Medicare, which the GOP should’ve blocked in 1965
I lken Harry Reid to Darth Vader following his evil emporer’s vile desires without Episodes 1 - 3 howing him as a once upon a time decent person
I liken Harry Reid to Darth Vader following his evil emporer’s vile desires without Episodes 1 - 3 showing him as a once upon a time decent person
...how about when the CR comes to the House w/ OC stripped out, just put it back in and send it back to Dingy Harry, tell him to take it or leave it.
... go to whatever media available and make it clear that if the govt shuts down, Dingy & Barry did it.
Yeah. And raise the stakes. Gut the CR of all funding for Planned Parenthood.
RE: He never says ‘what’s next’
I don’t think we really know the answer... but let’s see what the cause and effect will be...
1) Continue stubbornly sending CR’s that fund the government but defunds Obamacare. This will eventually result in a shutdown.
2) If a shutdown were to occur, AVERT IT by continuing to send CR’s that SPECIFICALLY MENTION and FUNDS those politically self-defeating items in danger of shutting down (e.g. veterans benefits, parks, civilian employees in danger of furloagh, etc. ) but still defunds Obamacare.
3) Send a CR that does not defund Obamacare but compromises with a DELAY of the individual mandate.
Maybe you or others can propose ideas that are not among the above 3 alternatives....
Well, how about this....
Once the demand to open non-essential government services reaches a fever pitch, the GOP (who have no incentive to extend the shutdown) can simply say, “Great, let’s hammer out a deal and reopen government.”
Once Obama’s party comes to the table, the GOP will have won, because any negotiations will mean repealing, delaying, and/or de-funding ObamaCare — not a 100% repeal/delay/defund, but something higher than 0%.
Certainly the Democrats will realize that negotiation will mean giving away some of their precious domestic “achievement,” and thus they will resist coming to the bargaining table. But Obama, Reid, et al. will be trapped by their own rhetoric. If the shutdown is so bad, and the GOP want to end it, then the pressure to negotiate a deal becomes more and more intense.
Convince people that the people who voted to fund 90% of the government have already compromised and the ones who say All or Nothing are the obstructionists who are shutting down government.
Stay firm with the DEFUND demand. Stay firm in the plan to continue funding government EXCEPT OBAMACARE.
Here’s how a scenario might play out...
When Obama demagogues Republicans for “shutting down the government,” Republicans should tell the pundits and the public, at every opportunity, that their CR does, in fact, fund the entire federal government, EXCEPT OBAMACARE.
If Obama threatens to default on the federal debt, the House should immediately pass and send to the Senate a bill appropriating the funds to pay the debt and no more.
And if the Senate refuses to pass it or the president refuses to sign it, Republicans should demand that Harry Reid and/or Barack Obama explain why.
If the president lays off, say, thousands of postal workers, the House should immediately appropriate the funds to hire them back BUT NOT FUND OBAMACARE, and if the Senate refuses...well, you get the idea.
Whatever Obama threatens to “shut down,” immediately appropriate the funds to prevent the “shutdown.” EXCEPT OBAMACARE.
Civil War in the Republican Party.
We need to determine whether Conservatism can win there, or if Republicans will always be Democrats in Sheep’s clothing.
What’s next in one sentence:
Whatever Obama or the Dems threaten to “shut down,” immediately appropriate the funds to prevent the “shutdown.” EXCEPT OBAMACARE.
The Lee/Cruz “Defund Obamacare” petition has jumped up by 35,000 signatures in just two hours this morning!!! By tomorrow it will pass the 2,000,000 signature level!!! I urge every American to sign/Endorse the Lee/Cruz petition on internet site: WWW.DONTFUNDOBAMACARE.COM, right now, TODAY!!! For goodness sakes, don’t be like our braindead RINO tribe....do something, say something, action something!!! Join the 1,810,000 Americans that have already signed and endorsed the Lee/Cruz, Defund Obamacare petition!!!
(WWW.DONTFUNDOBAMACARE.COM)
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.