The Republican Party is in full meltdown mode as John McCain has called Ted Cruz and all of the members of his own party who are trying to shutdown the government to defund Obamacare irrational.
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McCain responded to Cruz’ I think Sen. Cruz is free to do whatever he wants to within the rules of the Senate. I will state again unequivocally that this is not something we can succeed in, that’s defunding Obamacare, because we don’t have 67 Republican votes in the Senate, which would be required to override the presidential veto.” McCain said that the people who are doing this are new, and they don’t have the experience that older Republicans had when Newt Gingrich shutdown the government.
McCain said he could not second guess why Boehner is going forward with this, but that it was obvious that he has problems within his caucus. McCain made it absolutely clear that there was zero chance an effort to defund Obamacare will not pass, “I can tell you in the United States Senate. We will not repeal or defund Obamacare. We will not, and to think we can is irrational.”
When John McCain is the voice of rational reason in the room, Republicans have a lot of problems. This is the same John McCain who still defends invading Iraq, but even he sees that there is zero chance of any bill that defunds Obamacare passing the Senate. Even if the bill did pass, Republicans don’t have enough votes to override the certain presidential veto. It is just not going to happen.
The Republicans who are pushing defunding are doing so for their own benefit. Ted Cruz knows that defunding Obamacare will never pass the Senate, but he sees a chance to boost his possible 2016 presidential campaign by threatening a filibuster. (This would also allow him to match Rand Paul’s filibuster, and even in the score in the hearts of Republican primary voters.) McCain’s right. If Republicans shutdown the government over the ACA, they may end up losing the House.
The bigger problem is that the Obamacare jihad that the far right of the GOP is on is tearing the party apart. Older and more experienced Republicans are lining up against their inexperienced colleagues in a battle to prevent the ideologues from destroying the party. The conventional wisdom was that the Republicans can at least agree on getting rid of Obamacare, but that’s not true. Republicans can’t agree on anything.
What Republicans are doing is not irrational, it’s downright stupid. The Republican Party is getting to close to a full on collapse, and Democrats are more than happy to cheer them on.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
