September 27, 2013 — The Senate voted today to pass what is technically called, “The Motion to invoke Cloture on H.J. Resolution 59.” That is, they voted by 79-19, with 25 Republicans joining the unified Democrats, to pass the House budget resolution that defunded Obamacare.
They then voted by a 54-44 party line vote to remove the portion that defunded Obamacare.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz lit up the conservative movement this week when he spoke for 21 hours, lambasting Obamacare or as it should now be called, McConnellcare.
Since 2010, the Republican Party has run against Obamacare. All of the usual suspects have been out there railing against Obamacare. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly said he is against Obamacare. He is against it until it is time to do something about it.
Earlier today, in an email released by his office, McConnell said,
“Here in the Senate, we’re united on the need to repeal Obamacare, we want to replace it with sensible, bipartisan reforms that will actually work, and in a few minutes each and every one of us will vote against funding Obamacare. The American people want this law repealed. Republicans want it repealed. I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of our Democratic colleagues secretly want it repealed as well. The problem here is that we can’t get that done unless some of our friends on the other side are prepared to step up and work with us on the issue because there are 54 of them and 46 of us. This doesn’t mean we’ll give up the fight if they don’t. We won’t.”
The fact that Mitch McConnell has been fighting against Obamacare will come as a shock to almost every conservative in the nation. If McConnell, who is a lawyer, were in court, opposing counsel would object that he is arguing facts not in evidence.
McConnell and the Republican Establishment have never made a serious effort to defund Obamacare. For them, Obamacare is a great boogieman that they can take home with them. They can send out fundraising letters saying, “Help us defeat Obamacare.” They can go to the voters and tell them about how many meaningless votes were scheduled to defund Obamacare.
Yet when it came time to act, the Republican Party accepted its normal position of preemptive surrender.
Ted Cruz at least had a plan. If the filibuster had continued, then the Democrats could have been forced to the negotiating table. Instead, McConnell is treating Obamacare defunding like a hot potato and dumping it back in House Speaker John Boehner’s lap.
The Democrats have desperately been trying to rebrand Obamacare. They have been referring to Obamacare as “The Affordable Care Act.” They want to rebrand it because Obamacare is going to be one of the greatest failures in the history of this nation.
If the Democrats want to rebrand it, it should be rebranded. Conservatives have been saying for two weeks now that if Republicans voted for Obamacare, they owned it.
McConnell could have led a filibuster against the Affordable Care Act. Instead he chose to cut and run.
For conservatives, the ACA is no longer Obamacare. It is McConnellcare.
It belongs to Mitch McConnell because he could have done something to stop the train wreck.
So now it is McConnellcare and the Republican Party is the Party of McConnellcare. The question now is will Speaker John Boehner and the House of Representatives stand against McConnellcare or will they fold too?
Read more:
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/judson-phillips-cold-hard-truth/2013/sep/27/republicans-now-own-it-mcconnellcare-vote/#ixzz2g7u26DdF Follow us: @wtcommunities on Twitter
