Posted on 09/26/2013 2:03:17 PM PDT by smoothsailing
September 26, 2013
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz believes that Friday’s procedural vote in the Senate over a spending bill that defunds Obamacare is the most important vote he and other lawmakers will take all year.
In a conference call on Thursday with journalists and bloggers, Cruz said: “In my opinion, the cloture vote tomorrow is the most important vote that I will have cast in the short nine months I have been in the Senate. I think it’s the most important vote any of my colleagues will cast this year.”
House Republicans passed a short-term spending bill – known as a continuing resolution on Friday – that keeps the government running for the rest of the year while simultaneously defunding President Obama’s unpopular health care law.
Cruz supports that legislation. But his strategy is complex: the senator says he will actually vote against “cloture” – which would let that bill inch closer to a vote in the Senate – on Friday because Senate majority leader Harry Reid has vowed to remove the defunding Obamacare language from the legislation.
According to that thinking, Republicans would refuse to vote to allow the bill to proceed to a vote until Reid agrees to bring up the House bill – including the defunding Obamacare language — for an up-or-down vote.
On the conference call, Cruz argued that a vote against cloture on Friday is a vote for defunding Obamacare.
“The vote that matters is the vote tomorrow on cloture,” Cruz said. “Any senator who votes yes on cloture tomorrow is voting to give Harry Reid the power to fully fund Obamacare. I will vote no on cloture tomorrow. That vote is the fight.”
Cruz said he is encouraging Republicans to join him, though he knows many currently oppose his strategy.
“Based on their public statements, a significant number of Senate Republicans currently intend to vote with Senate Republican leadership to support Harry Reid and the Democrats and to allow Harry Reid to fund Obamacare,” he said. “I hope by tomorrow, that’s no longer the case.”
“The first thing that has to happen is we have to unite Republicans,” Cruz said. “The second thing that has to happen is we have to start picking off Democrats. Until we unite Republicans, we will not succeed in picking off any Democrats. And right now, unfortunately, where the effort to defund Obamacare is running into its most significant obstacle is in working to unite Senate Republicans.”
Cruz made his pitch to senators still on the fence: “Whether Senate Republicans vote against giving Harry Reid the power to fund Obamacare will depend on whether Senate Republicans listen to their constituents. Every single Republican ran on fighting Obamacare. And I guarantee you, the constituents of every Senate Republican and – for that matter, every Senate Democrat – understand that Obamacare is a train wreck, it’s a nightmare, it’s not working and it’s hurting millions of Americans. And any senator who listens to his constituents will vote no on cloture tomorrow.”
Cruz has become the face of the defund-Obamacare strategy, pulling off a 21-hour long extended speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate on the topic Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I hope that over the course of this week, we have made some real progress in terms of focusing attention on Obamacare and what a disaster it has been for the American people,” Cruz said. “Obamacare is the biggest job killer in this country. Millions of Americans are facing the prospects of losing their jobs, or not being hired at all, are facing the prospects of being pushed forcibly into part-time work, or facing sky rocketing health insurance premiums and are facing the risks or the realities of losing their health-insurance.”
Asked if he’s gotten some sleep, Cruz laughed and said, “I have.”
Cruz also laid out his favored strategy if Reid successfully stops the defunding Obamacare movement in the Senate: he wants the House to pass smaller, continuing resolution bills so the government will keep running.
“If we defeat cloture tomorrow, and Harry Reid digs in and will not allow the Senate to move forward on any continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare, than I believe the House is in a position to stand its ground and to begin passing smaller continuing resolutions focusing on our most critical priorities,” he said.
For example, the House could pass a bill that continues to fund the military. That bill would then head to the Senate. Individual bills would keep the government running without funding Obamacare, Cruz said.
“Now it will speak volumes whether Reid is willing to kill smaller, more narrow continuing resolutions because he is so determined to push Obamacare on the American people,” he said.
Coburn is a piece of shit. He used to be good He’s exactly what he used to be critical of...a creature of and by Washington.
Senator Saxby Chambliss is on the senate floor now speaking
Cruz has been saying all along that if Reid get his way in the senate then it will go back to the house and it will be up to the house to use James Madison’s constitutional power of the purse to deny funding for the president’s unconstitutional expansion projects. The house and the house alone has the awesome power and duty to halt runaway government via denial of funding.
Prayers that God grants our representatives with the wisdom, courage, strength and stamina to stand together against the coming godless liberal media storm and to save the Republic!
I swear I used to hear Coburn described as conservative. But then when he endorsed Romney on March 4th last year, I realized he couldn’t be. Most of the people opposing Cruz endorsed Romney or vice versa. RINOs seem to think and march in lockstep with each other. They are a very distinct and different animal from conservatives.
My sense is that a delay is better than implementation. However, the leader on this is Cruz. If he supports the House, then I’ll support the House. If he doesn’t, then I won’t.
He has the integrity, the insider knowledge and the guts to lead.
was it Coburn or Burr who wrote the book on how conservatives get corrupted by DC? The author became a prime example of it.
Amen!!....and amen....
Amen to that.
“We must hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Well they’re going to have to hide their money out of the country then because when the libs see how much Obamacommiecare is costing they are going to go after the rich like farmers after Frankenstein. 100% tax rate like France...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2013/05/21/french-tax-soars-over-100/
or seizure of bank accounts like Cyprus...
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cypriot-lawmakers-gear-deposit-levy-vote
Don’t forget: We no longer live under a constitutional Republic. We live under soft tyranny. Obamacommiecare is going to tip that to hardcore tyranny which has been their plan all along.
I think we’ll have to disagree on this one.
The “rich” are just as much a part of the government as the POTUS and his Democrat cronies.
No they are not, maybe the billionaires, but if you got a 7 figure net worth you can kiss that goodbye. Remember: Obama defines “rich” as someone who makes over $250K a year. But let’s not even talk about the rich. If you have ANY kind of money, they are going to take it from you. My parents are in their mid 70s now, busted their asses all their lives and now are semi-rich and retired. I told them if Obamacommiecare comes into being they should get the hell out of the country much like the Jews should have gotten out of Germany when Hitler took power because what is going to happen is the government is going to take the majority of what they worked for to support this crap and they are going to have to come out of retirement and work again. That is EXACTLY what is going to happen! Do you want to place bets? Obamacommiecare has only one purpose: To destroy the United States of America. That is the ONLY reason this thing exists because to destroy a country like the USA you have to do it financially which is why those terrorists attacked Wall street twice - Well 3 times if you count the Occupy Wall street terrorists. We are F**ked if this Obamacommiecare becomes ironclad. Put it this way: We are in debt more than all the money that exists in the world today. What do you think this is going to do? This is like nuking the Titanic after it hits the iceberg. Forget about it, we are finished as a nation.
I have been telling people for weeks to call or write their Senators.
Even after Cruz’s speech, they just look at me like I am crazy and ask What can we do?
I want to shake them and yell, Call your Senators NOW!
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
My congressman Todd Young has the delay bill ready and waiting with bi-partician support
He’s been working in the House while Coats works in the Senate.
They are not putting all their eggs in one basket as in the past
Plan B is ready and waiting
Cruz on the Senate floor speaking now.
backstabbing double-talkers
Maybe.... Maybe not
They got burned when the counted on Scot Browns election by Reid who manipulated timing of the vote
They got burned again when the counted on SCOTUS to hood it unconstitutional
Shame on them twice!
So now keep the enemy guessing what your up to. Keep your powder dry and in multiple places.
Young is quite a scholar and an academy grad, if he out flanks or surprises them I wouldn’t be surprised
Reid just numbers them...
Theyre in the 70s..
like 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79
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