Responding to criticism from within his own party Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, vowed to filibuster any budget that comes before the Senate without provisions to defund the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, according to CBS News.
Cruz said that he would do "everything necessary and anything possible to defund Obamacare" including a filibuster and "anything else, any procedural means necessary," according to CBS News.
A GOP budget that includes a rider that would defund the health care reform law that is the signature legislation of President Barack Obama's first term is expected to come to a vote on Friday. Once it passes it is basically guaranteed to go nowhere; there aren't the votes to pass it in the Senate and President Obama has already vowed to veto the bill if there were.
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, has led his chamber to more than 40 votes attempting to defund or repeal the controversial health care law. Boehner believes that it's time for the Republicans in the Senate to do the same, according to the New York Daily News.
"The fight over here has been won. The fight over there is just beginning," Boehner said. "I expect my Senate colleagues to do everything they can to defund this law, just like the House is going to do."
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., appeared on Fox News to express his optimism that the GOP members of the Senate will be able to find a way to get the budget passed in the same form that it leaves the House, according to Politico.
"Sen. Cruz, Sen. [Mike] Lee, Sen. [Marco] Rubio have said that they're going to do everything and anything that they can to stop Obamacare," Cantor said. "I support them in their efforts to do so. And we've actually given them what they want because this bill is coming over to them."
The bill has led to some divisions within the Republican Party as Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., has referred to the attempt to make continuing funding the government contingent on defunding the Affordable Care Act the "dumbest idea I've ever heard," according to CBS News.
If a budget is not passed by Sept. 30 it will lead to a government shutdown; Cruz has said that while that is not the outcome anyone wants that it wouldn't be "the end of the world" either. The last time Republicans forced a government shutdown was during the Clinton years; voters rewarded them by sweeping them out of office in the next election, according to the New York Daily News.
"I don't think that any reasonable person thinks there's anything to be gained by a government shutdown," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. "Rather than a shutdown of government, what we need is a Republican victory in 2014 so we can be in control. I'm not sure those are mutually compatible."
