September 24, 2013 by David K. Sutton
The Fake-Filibuster: Because Senator Ted Cruz Loves The Sound Of His Own Voice
When this article was published, Senator Ted Cruz was still fake-filibustering on the Senate floor. His reason for fake-filibustering is to denounce Obamacare and call for it’s defunding. This will never happen of course, but a little thing like reality won’t stand in the way of delusion for Republicans like Cruz. And I say this is a fake filibuster because Cruz has no power in this situation to hold the Senate hostage.
Ted Cruz’s Long Speech To Block Obamacare Funding Is No Filibuster — In short, his “filibuster” is not actually a filibuster. It’s merely a speech to kill time.
Once 60 votes are achieved to proceed, expected to happen on Wednesday, debate is limited to 30 hours. That time is divided equally between the two parties, which means Cruz will still lack the ability to filibuster. He may, however, eat up the 15 hours allocated to his party for debate if he holds the floor.
An actual filibuster requires 41 votes to deny cloture and block legislation from moving forward. Cruz does not have that many votes. Even a talking filibuster isn’t an option under Rule 22 when debate begins on a bill. Previous talking filibusters, such as the one by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) earlier this year, were not amidst debate on a bill.
So Ted Cruz is not participating in a talking filibuster, he’s simply talking. Remember, this is the guy who has a painting of himself hanging in his office, and he just loves the sound of his own voice.
Cruz knows he has no power to defund Obamacare. This fake-filibuster is nothing more than a free publicized hours-long campaign ad for the Tea Party crowd, orchestrated by a pontificating narcissist.