TED CRUZ – WE DON’T HAVE THE VOTES IN THE HOUSE OR SENATE TO DEFUND OBAMACARE NOW
Published on The Weekly Standard (www.weeklystandard.com)
Cruz: We Don’t Have Votes in House or Senate to Defund Obamacare Now
‘The only way we win this fight is if the American people rise up in overwhelming numbers.’
John McCormack
July 31, 2013 10:12 PMSenator Ted Cruz of Texas has been leading the charge in the Senate to defund Obamacare, dubbing some colleagues skeptical of the strategy as members of the “surrender caucus.” But speaking Wednesday evening to a group of more than 300 libertarian students in Arlington, Virginia, Cruz acknowledged the long odds facing those who say they can defund Obamacare in 2013.
Unless there’s a dramatic change in the next two months and the “American people rise up in overwhelming numbers,” Cruz said, Obamacare won’t be defunded.
“Right now, we don’t have the votes. We don’t have the votes in the House. We don’t have the votes in the Senate,” Cruz said at the gathering of Young Americans for Liberty. “I’m going to be perfectly candid, we can’t win this fight. Mike Lee can’t win this fight, I can’t win this fight, Rand Paul can’t win this fight. No Washington politician can win this fight. The only people who can win this fight are you. The only way we win this fight is if the American people rise up in overwhelming numbers and demand our elected officials to do the right thing and stand for principle.”
Cruz told the crowd that it would only take 41 votes in the Senate to defund Obamacare. Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn has said it would actually take two-thirds of the House and Senate to defund Obamacare because Obamacare implentation will continue even if there is a government shutdown.
