(From CBS News)
Congress continued its steady march toward a government shutdown Tuesday with another round of posturing but little action to keep the government running past next Monday.
Both the Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate seemed poised to speed up a vote on a spending bill from House Republicans that would have funded the government through Dec. 15 but stripped out funding for the Affordable Care Act. Many Senate Republicans were prepared to vote for the measure, which they favored, and Democrats were ready to get their hands on the bill so they could amend it and restore funding for the law.
But that possibility ground to a halt as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, took to the Senate floor to deliver a lengthy speech (that technically is not a filibuster, because of the Senate's procedural rules). He began talking at 2:41 p.m. ET, announcing that "I intend to speak against Obamacare until I am no longer able to stand."
- Gov't shutdown deadline looms but infighting continues
- Both parties to blame if government shuts down, poll says
"Anyone who votes to cut off debate is voting to allow Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [D-Nev.] to fully fund Obamacare," Cruz said on the floor of the Senate. His strategy does not appear to have gained traction with most of his fellow Republicans.
"I think we'd all be hard-pressed to explain why we were opposed to a bill we were in favor of," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., after Senate Republicans gathered for their weekly lunch meeting.
House members are set to return to Washington Wednesday, but there won't be much they can do about funding the government until the Senate sends back a revised version of their bill. That may not happen until Sunday, because of procedural hurdles - which would force the House to act quickly to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1.
"We'll deal with whatever the Senate passes when they pass it," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "There's no point in speculating before that."
Reid and McConnell both spoke favorably about the possibility of waiving certain rules to speed up debate. But, while McConnell told reporters that he didn't object to speeding up the votes, "any one senator can object to any effort to shorten the process." That is what Cruz is doing with his speech.
A live stream can be viewed here.
Ezra Klein
Ted Cruz’s filibuster is an excellent argument against Ted Cruz’s filibuster http://wapo.st/1fzutN7
Done with the Cruzbuster? Come to Wonkblog’s Obamacare debate tonight! http://www.washingtonpost.com/postlive/conferences/wonkblog-debates-obamacare/ …
3 comments:
17 hours and still talking. It's the fifth-longest address in Senate history.
Some of the high (or low) lights:
From Tweets (If Strom Thurmond had Twitter, how long could he have gone??):
Cruz starts reading tweets, realizes he already read them. "I've done these"
Pic of @SenTedCruz daughters as he reads them Green Eggs & Ham.
#MakeDCListen pic.twitter.com/UXqFg0xrPB
8:40 p.m.: For those keeping score at home, Sen. Ted Cruz has been non-filibustering for six hours. The longest he can speak, before the Senate begins voting on the continuing resolution, is until 1 p.m. tomorrow. Back at the talkathon, Cruz's latest theme was more or less summed up in this tweet from his office:
Senator Ted Cruz ✔ @SenTedCruz
Why do Americans hold this body in such low regard? Because we pass laws that treat us better than them. #MakeDCListen
I feel that politicians and officials such as Ted Cruz are part of the reason that we have such a wide gap in the American political spectrum where the moderate conservatives should be. Extreme conservatives such as Cruz dominate the republican party, leaving no room for competition from more moderate politicians. The extreme officials push out the other politicians by soaking up all the money for campaigning. They outshine the more moderate candidates by making them seem as if they are not "real republicans". This can also explain why so little Americans are voting these days. I mean what moderate conservative would want to vote when his/her only options are a crazy liberal or an extreme conservative.
Post a Comment