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Senate Democratic Leader Sets Stage for Budget Showdown
In Funding Fight, Senate Republicans Back Away From Cruz
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The Senate’s Democratic majority leader, Harry Reid, delivered a broadside this week to advocates of the House plan to tie future government financing to the gutting of President Obama’s health care law, starting the clock on a showdown that could be decided on the eve of the potential government shutdown next Tuesday.
Washington — Many Senate Republicans on Tuesday abandoned their colleague, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, in his tangled procedural fight over funding the government even as he took to the Senate floor and declared he would speak “until I cannot stand” to rally voters against the new health care law.
Facing opposition from the Senate’s most conservative hard-liners, Mr. Reid has set up a series of procedural tallies, starting on Wednesday, that should culminate on Sunday in votes to remove language from the House spending bill that would strip funding from the Affordable Care Act and then to pass a spending measure to keep the government operating through mid-December. It would be up to House Republican leaders to accept that Senate bill or precipitate a shutdown.
While the Senate appeared increasingly likely to override Mr. Cruz in a preliminary vote scheduled for Wednesday, Mr. Cruz pressed ahead with his opposition and compared his fight to leaders who stood against the Nazis, ended the cold war or launched the American Revolution.
“We will not bow to Tea Party anarchists,” Mr. Reid said Monday, denouncing what he called “extremist Republicans” and “fanatics.”
“Everyone in America knows Obamacare is destroying the economy,” he said as he began speaking shortly before 3 p.m.
“The simple fact remains: Obamacare is the law of the land, and it will remain the law of the land as long as Barack Obama is president of the United States and as long as I am the Senate majority leader,” he said on the Senate floor.
Yet outside the chamber, his colleagues worked to actively thwart his efforts to block a vote to take up the House-passed bill that does precisely what he wants: funds the government through mid-December while defunding the Affordable Care Act.
Signaling a serious split among Republicans, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, announced that he would not support efforts by the most conservative Senate Republicans to block consideration of the House bill in an effort to slow down the legislative process.
Mr. Cruz was calling on his colleagues to stonewall a measure they technically supported, reasoning that Senate Democrats would be successful in stripping the health care provision from the funding bill once the way was cleared to a Senate vote on the measure.
“Senator McConnell supports the House Republicans’ bill and will not vote to block it, since it defunds Obamacare and funds the government without increasing spending by a penny,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Mr. McConnell. “He will also vote against any amendment that attempts to add Obamacare funding back into the House Republicans’ bill.”
But other Republicans said they saw no reason to oppose opening debate on a measure they actually backed.
The House passed legislation on Friday that would keep the government open through Dec. 15, but only if the health care law were defunded. That sent the fight to the Senate, where the most ardent conservatives, led by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, began waging a procedural war to stretch out the debate.
“We’d be hard-pressed to explain why we were opposed to a bill we’re in favor of,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.
Even Senate Republicans say Democrats have the votes to eliminate policy measures they find objectionable and to pass a spending bill unencumbered with policy prescriptions. The procedural fight may actually be playing into the Democrats’ hands. By delaying a final Senate vote until Sunday, Mr. Cruz would leave the House almost no time to add conditions to a stopgap spending bill. The House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, would face a stark choice: Accept the Senate measure or ensure a shutdown.
Others warned of political repercussions if Senate Republicans, who hope to regain control of the Senate in next year’s elections, were seen as contributing to the government being shutdown. “Getting the majority in the Senate in 2014 is possible, and we don’t want to go down roads that make it harder,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who is up for re-election next year.
A lunch meeting for Republican senators on Tuesday could decide whether Mr. Cruz keeps up his efforts or bows to a push for a quicker final vote.
“Repealing Obamacare is a goal all Republicans share,” he added, “but the tactics of achieving that goal can have a backlash.”
“I think that most Republicans realize that this is a flight of foolishness,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. “They’re trying to figure out how to wriggle themselves out now.”
Mr. Cruz’s lonely stand was not really a filibuster. The first vote in a multiday process to get to a final showdown is set for around 10 a.m. Wednesday. Mr. Cruz could talk until then, but he is not able to delay or thwart the vote itself. And only a handful of Republicans are expected to join him in voting against taking up the House bill.
Mr. Cruz was unapologetic on Monday, asking for an agreement to make any vote to strip the defunding bill subject to a 60-vote threshold, not the simple 51-vote majority usually needed. When that was denied by Mr. Reid, Mr. Cruz told senators that a vote even to take up the House bill, which he ardently supports, would be a vote to allow a majority vote to keep financing the health care law.
Senate Republicans pushed Mr. Cruz Tuesday to give up his stalling tactics and let the Senate take its final votes as soon as possible to strip out the health care language and other policy prescriptions, then approve new language to keep the government operating until mid-November. An early vote would give Speaker John A. Boehner more time to plan his next move: whether to put the Senate-passed bill up for a vote and ensure no government shutdown or add new Republican-favored language and send it back to the Senate.
In a speech from the Senate floor, he called this “a critical week for the United States Senate.”
If Mr. Cruz keeps up his crusade, the final vote cannot happen until Sunday.
“Obamacare isn’t working,” he said. “We’re going to step forward and recognize the reality that it’s the biggest job killer in the country, and we will not affirmatively fund it.”
“I don’t know who else in the conference may feel differently, but I do know if the House doesn’t get what we send over there until Monday, they’re in a pretty tough spot,” Mr. McConnell said.
If Mr. Cruz holds firm, the Senate on Wednesday morning will vote to cut off debate on a formal motion to take up the House bill. That is expected to get the 60 votes needed on such a procedural vote, especially now that it has Mr. McConnell’s endorsement. Mr. Reid will file an amendment that effectively strips out the health care language and other House policy measures on Thursday.
The Senate’s Democratic majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, moved Tuesday to change the House-passed bill, shortening the stopgap spending measure to fund the government through mid-November instead of mid-December. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, requested the change to raise pressure on the House to address the automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration, that are squeezing federal programs and are reflected in the spending plan passed by the House.
After 30 hours of debate, that amendment and the spending bill would face its biggest test on Saturday: Will 60 senators vote to end debate and move to a final vote? If they do, only 51 votes will be needed on Sunday to send the House a clean bill that would keep the government open.
