House Republicans who were hoping that their Senate counterparts would be willing to force a government shutdown in order to defund the Affordable Care Act were dealt a major blow when two of the Republican leaders in the Senate said they would not support such actions, according to the Washington Post.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced that they will not join in with a plan by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to use every possible procedural tactic to strip funding from the health care reform law, according to the Washington Post.
Despite being sent the exact bill that Cruz had been clamoring for the last couple of months the Tea Party favorite is now trying to rally the party around blocking the House bill. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said that he will strip out the provision defunding the Affordable Care Act, which can be accomplished by a simple majority vote, so Cruz is hoping to stall the bill so that it never comes up for a vote, thus forcing a government shutdown, according to the Washington Post.
Reid is expected to move the bill through the Senate slowly so that it won't come up for a final vote until Sunday. At that point it will have been stripped of the defunding provision so the House will be forced into a position where they can vote for the bill or be held responsible for a shutdown, according to the New York Times.
"We're not going to bow to Tea Party anarchists who deny the mere fact that Obamacare is the law," Reid said on the Senate floor. "We will not bow to Tea Party anarchists who refuse to accept the Supreme Court ruling that Obamacare is constitutional. And we will not bow to Tea Party anarchists in the House or in the Senate who ignore the fact that President Obama was overwhelmingly reelected a few months ago."
Despite the lack of support that Cruz seems to be receiving from his party he remained determined in his plan.
"In my view, every Senate Republican should stand united and support the House Republicans," Cruz told Politico. "Any senator who votes for cloture on the bill... is voting to allow Harry Reid to fund Obamacare with just 51 votes. I think that should pose an easy choice to every Republican Senator."
The Senate will be debating the bill the majority of today. A live stream of their session can be seen through C-Span at this link.
