Posted on 10/16/2013 9:58:14 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Sens. Cruz, Lee say they won't block deal By Mike Lillis - 10/16/13 12:38 PM ET
Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee said Wednesday that they won't try to block the bipartisan deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling.
"The timing of the vote will make no difference to the outcome," Cruz (R-Texas) said. "I have no intention of delaying the vote."
Cruz and Lee (R-Utah) had spearheaded the campaign to attach ObamaCare language to any new budget bills, and had pushed their colleagues to take a hard-line stance.
But the pair emerged from a meeting of Senate Republicans Wednesday afternoon to say they would let the agreement — which contains only one provision on ObamaCare — move forward.
"Some of us want to see it first — we still don't have text," Lee said. "But provided we get the text and have time t review it and everything, I suspect we'll collapse the time."
There has been speculation that the bipartisan deal might originate in the House, thereby eliminating some procedural hurdles when the bill moved to the Senate. But with Cruz and Lee withdrawing their filibuster threats, several GOP senators said the upper chamber will likely act first on the agreement.
The deal reached by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would fund the government through Jan. 15 and raise the debt-ceiling until February. It would require income verification for subsidies under ObamaCare, but otherwise leave the helathcare law untouched.
The weeks-long fight over ObamaCare has left the GOP sharply divided and licking its wounds, after centrist Republicans warned for weeks that the battle was futile and damaging to the party.
Several Republicans left the meeting Wednesday grumbling that the conservatives in their ranks had prolonged the impasse even as Republicans were sinking in the polls.
"We left a lot on the table because we couldn't get our act together, but this is the best Mitch could do," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who will vote for the deal. "We need to stop the bleeding, lessen the damage to the party."
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) echoed that message.
"I hope it is another 15 years at least before we have to go through this exercise again," McCain said. "We're in a hole, we have to dig out and come up with a positive agenda."
/johnny
In before they get called RINOs
The French could take lessons on how to surrender from the GOP.
Even cruz believes the media when the media say there is a crisis. the media lies there is no global catastrophe looming, there isn't even a crisis as there was never a threat of default
The USA is a news media dictatorship, .the media are socialist monsters and they rule with an iron fist
none of these morons see that growing government is ruining the economy(economy is just running on massive growing debt any idiot knows THIS is what will cause collapse. this is the apposite of the media lies who say we must raise the debt ceiling
none of these morons see that growing government is also taking away our freedoms. the democrats and other idiots are happy to be slaves of the government . they trust and love government and don't see it's just running on debt
we are done.i'm looking for another country to move to, maybe Australia, canada
Well I suspected it by the way he has handled it but I am going to say it.
Ted ruz is useless. He is a paper tiger and not a very good one at that. his non-filibuster was just show to get him nominated in 2016. Wanna prove you are a leader? Filibuster. He backs down. he skulks around. He is in this for one man ... Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz can take a hike. I started out leaning his way but have done a 180.
What a useless twit. Boy am I angry. Like in football ... next man up because Cruz is not a man.
Go away Teddy. You are not wanted
Why? All he dd was make noise that accomplished nothing. If I just want someone who can yell I’ll vote for the Yorkie next door. Ted Cruz is a yapper, nothing more.
House should fight for mid-December instead of Jan. That way Obamacare delay could still be on table.
If there’s one lesson I hope won’t come from all this it’s that conservatives shouldn’t try because we can’t win. Keep fighting, lots of fights have been won by the underdog.
Would be silly.
“Kelly O’Donnell; @KellyO
McCain expects large GOP vote for Senate compromise.”
LOL! What a dunce McCain is.
And the most Cruz could have done with this is delay it 30 hours, according to the rules.
/johnny
maybe cruz should have read Sarah Palin’s column where she says there is no threat of default. so it was a news media manufactured crises
No need to worry about that.
They're worse.
They're White Flag, Surrender Monkeys.
PFFFFFT! So wait... they're going to add an additional step into the already broken process to get on to the Obamacare rolls?
Are these Representatives complete and total MORONS?! This is a non-starter. Obama's already made executive decisions to not enforce some rules while enforcing or enhancing others not initially agreed to. What the HELL makes ANY of them think that he won't ignore this rule as well?
Obama has to be laughing his head off at this! It's a ruse! The entire country is being snookered by the government.
/johnny
IMO, this puts the spotlight glaringly on healthcare.gov and Obamacare in general. Come January, if people still cannot register for Obamacare reliably and more information about rate hikes, healthcare workers being fired, the insurance exchange death spiral has begun, etc, we may actually have more leverage to flush this turd.
We will be in mid-term election year, Obama is still a lame duck. Dems will have to decide whether to ride it out or pull the chain.
I suppose kicking the Obamacare defund discussion down the road closer to Democrat Re-Election Day does make some political sense. Though we’ll be about a trillion deeper in the hole.
Feel better?
The right people know that the two of them have done their best and anything further will just discredit the whole movement at this point. When the people speak the media will be silenced once again.
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.