Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to the Senate floor on Tuesday around 2:41pm to stand as long as he could against funding Obamacare. He wanted to give voice to the American people, who oppose the massive train wreck law known as the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. He concluded his talk minutes ago, at noon. The Texas Senator stood for nearly 22 hours to point out the failures and dangers of Obamacare. View the nearly 22 hours of Cruz’s talk here.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/QGoyGXECkpI[/youtube]
Cruz cited numerous articles against Obamacare. He even filled the time with readings from Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss, Ayn Rand and other modern celebrities. However, his message was clear that Obamacare is bad. It’s bad law and it’s bad for Americans.
He also spoke of our founding fathers and the great sacrifices in this life they gave in order to see America established. This led me to tweet:
@sentedcruz is reminding representatives of time when men actually had honor and desired freedom rather than be pigs and have no integrity
take our poll - story continues belowCompleting this poll grants you access to DC Clothesline updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.— Tim Brown (@FPPTim) September 25, 2013
I wish representatives would learn from the historical figures @sentedcruz is mentioning #standwithcruz as he fights to #defunobamacare
— Tim Brown (@FPPTim) September 25, 2013
Mr. Cruz said he still had “strength in my legs to stand a little longer” and asked Democrats to let him keep talking past the noon deadline.
“When I started this filibuster yesterday afternoon, I told the American people that I intended to stand until I could stand no more,” he said.
Cruz was supported by several Republican senators, including Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Marco Rubio (R-FL).
Cruz did allow for questions and statements from his colleagues and from his opposition. Interestingly enough, Rubio asked a 50 minute question, and Lee asked a 47 minute question.
Amazingly, many Democrats agree that Obamacare is bad! The law hasn’t even been really put into effect and yet they are talking about “making it better.” Apparently they didn’t read the law when they passed it. That seems to be the track record for many representatives.
Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) said that his constituents were calling in and voicing opposition to the health care law. However, Isakson said that many were confused about the complex votes set up for this week.
“There’s a lot of confusion about the vote,” Ms. Isakson said. “They admire the passion of Senator Cruz on one hand, but they don’t really understand what’s happening with the two votes, cloture vs. denying cloture, so we’re trying to help educate them in what the reality is.”
If things go as planned, there will be a vote at 1pm on Wednesday to set up a final vote on bringing the spending bill to the floor of the Senate. The final vote would take place within 30 hours.
Then there would be a 60 vote threshold that would have to be achieved to cut off debate (cloture). This would then allow another 30 hour window to vote on final passage.
During that time, Democrats could remove the defunding of Obamacare by a simple majority vote.
As for Senator Cruz, well, he wants to halt and repeal the entire law and has said that he will not vote for any spending bill that includes money that funds Obamacare.
“I think Obamacare is a disaster. I think it’s a train wreck,” he said.
Here’s what you need to know. The bill before the Senate will not shut down the government if passed. It will stop Obamacare in its tracks. If it fails to pass, then if people are upset over a government shutdown, you can blame the Senate Democrats and the following Senate Republicans, who are openly opposed to Ted Cruz’s efforts:
Kelly Ayotte NH John Boozman AR
Richard Burr NC Tom Coburn OK
John Cornyn TX Lindsey Graham SC
Mark Kirk IL John McCain AZ
Mitch McConnell KY Roger Wicker MS
Here are Republican Senators whose position is unknown (How in the world can they not have a position?):
Lamar Alexander TN John Barraso WY
Roy Blunt MO Saxby Chambliss GA
Dan Coats IN Thad Cochran MS
Susan Collins ME Bob Corker TN
Jeff Flake AZ Orrin Hatch UT
Dean Heller NV John Hoeven ND
John Isakson GA Mike Johanns NE
Ron Johnson WI Jerry Moran KS
Lisa Murkowski AK Rob Portman OH
Tim Scott SC Jeff Sessions AL
Richard Shelby AL Pat Toomey PA
Contact your senator immediately by clicking here.
UPDATE: Vote for cloture passes 100-0. The Senate now is scheduled to hold up to 30 hours of debate on the funding bill. The Washington Post adds:
The development came after Cruz (R-Tex.) ended his marathon talking attack on the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law more than three years ago, at noon Wednesday when he ran into a deadline imposed by Senate rules, allowing the body to take up the funding bill aimed at averting a looming government shutdown.
The Senate then essentially choked off the first filibuster hurdle on its own version of the funding bill, marking the first step toward allowing Democrats to include funding for the health-care law that had previously been stripped out by the House.
Tim Brown is the Editor of Freedom Outpost and a regular contributor to The D.C. Clothesline.
