Jason Howerton:
After the House of Representatives easily passed a continuing resolution that strips Obamacare of all funding on Friday, the bill now heads to the U.S. Senate where Democrats are eager to restore the flow of dollars to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
However, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) may have one more trick up his sleeve.
The Texas Republican is calling for “unity” within the GOP and asking senators to oppose limiting debate on the bill, preventing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from using “procedural gimmicks” to add Obamacare funding back in. In other words, filibuster the continuing resolution.
Ted Cruz Suggests Filibustering Continuing Resolution Defunding Obamacare
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, center, speaks at a news conference with conservative Congressional Republicans who persuaded the House leadership to include defunding the Affordable Care Act legislation to prevent a government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013. Credit: AP
“Step two is the Senate, where all accounts suggest Harry Reid plans to use procedural gimmicks to try to add funding back in for Obamacare,” Cruz said in a statement on Friday. “If Reid pursues this plan — if he insists on using a 50-vote threshold to fund Obamacare with a partisan vote of only Democrats — then I hope that every Senate Republican will stand together and oppose cloture on the bill in order to keep the House bill intact and not let Harry Reid add Obamacare funding back in.”Cruz challenged Senate Republicans to “stand side-by-side with courageous House Republicans.”
“Now is a time for party unity,” he said.
“The fight to save America from Obamacare is just beginning — it may well go back and forth from the House and Senate several times — and a united Republican front means that Harry Reid and the President cannot ignore the American people,” Cruz added.
This, from the guy whose political ambitions are most likely to blow the GOP to pieces…
@Greg:
Which is what you leftists want, isn’t it, Greg?
Conservatives are tired of the RINOs. We have enough big government socialists in the democrat party. Cruz is admirably fighting obamacare on principle.
Did you catch the fact that two House democrats voted with te republicans to defund obamacare? That is two more than the number of republicans voting for the original obacare bill….because no republican voted in favor of the original bill passed by the lameduck demo-controlled congress in December of 2010.
@Greg:
Oh, Greggie; I see you have moved on to another topic in order to avoid proving your claims that Benghazi is just a bogus scandal by Republicans.
Do you think no one here realizes that you are just a drive-by crap slinger?
@Pete:
Pete, our resident progressive/liberal, Greggie, just likes to let his mouth write checks his arse can’t cash.
So what are the rules in the Senate?
Byron York seems to know them……
When the House passes a continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare and sends it to the Senate, several things will happen.
1. There will be cloture votes on a motion to proceed and a motion to actually take up the defunding resolution.
The bill will almost certainly go forward; Republicans, whatever their position on the defunding question, certainly won’t stop the House bill before it can be considered.
2. Then, when the defunding continuing resolution is being considered, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will propose a motion to strike the defunding provision from the continuing resolution.
Senate rules allow that to be decided on a simple majority vote.
3. Democrats will vote to strike the defunding portion and set up a final up-or-down vote on the continuing resolution, which at that point will be just a measure to fund the government, including Obamacare.
4. There will be a simple majority vote.
The measure will pass.
Ted Cruz Suggests Filibustering Continuing Resolution Defunding Obamacare, but he cannot make that happen.
He can use up every second of the debate period allowed for the bill.
Senate rules, which Reid will enforce, will limit the debate on the measure to 30 hours, divided evenly between the parties. That gives Republicans 15 hours, to be divided between 46 GOP senators.
There are no gimmicks.
This is Senate procedure 101.
@Nan G: But — wait until they start thinking about next year’s elections – heh heh heh