Thank You, Senator Cruz (and McConnell)

I applaud all members of Congress who are keeping up the fight against Obamacare. Of course, this fight has been fought again and again by the Republicans, starting in the House, but with a growing coterie in the US Senate standing with the lower house to stop this law.

From its corrupt inception, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has caused nothing but problems for the American people. The law does not protect patients, but rather exposes them to rationing, to fewer doctors, to higher premiums, to less access. In effect, this law has become unaffordable, and a glaring symbol of how little the Washington political class cares about the American people. 

Despite the infrequent praise of some who like staying on their parents' plan until they are twenty-six, for example, or those who bathe in the social justice of forcing insurance companies to cover individuals with preexisting conditions (as if no company ever would, which was simply never the case), the law has been a progressive regression of the health care industry.

Individual accounts relate of people losing their doctors as these professionals choose to retire rather then deal with the paperwork, the higher costs, and the material mandates.

Insurance premiums are rising all over the country, and even in California, Covered CA (the Golden State's tarnished Medicare exchange) has fewer providers providing health insurance. Kaiser and Blue Shield remain in the Medicare Exchanges, and Kaiser is about to leave the exchanges (but the Medical program will remain in the state building hospitals).

Obamacare does not care about Americans, and because Persident Obama will not defund Obamacare, he obviously does not care about us.

Then comes US Senator Cruz (R-Texas)

Senator Cruz is tying Obamacare around the necks of the President Obama and the Democratic caucus in the US Senate. They must own this law, they must defend this law, and they will sink with this law, which Senator Lindsey Graham plainly declares: "It sucks!" US Senator Dick Durbin questioned Cruz' opposition to the law by bringing up the protections for those with pre-existing conditions.

Cruz was spot-on in his response. If Obamacare is so great, then how come US Senators and their staff sought to be exempt from the Medicare exchanges? How come the legislators in Washington want to force these terrible programs, these mendacious mandates, on everyone else?

This law has pushed full-time workers barely getting by into part-time status, not able to pay their bills. Cruz has read letter upon letter of individual voters who are hurting under this law. Restaurant owners have been forced to push employees into fewer hours.

Major employers like UPS have written letters to their employees, informing them that the company will no longer offer health insurance for the spouses of employees. In previous articles from the New York Times, records indicate that loopholes in the law can permit the IRS to withhold subsidies for family members of the main employee makes a certain dollar amount.

But what else would one expect from legislation 2,500 pages long, with tens of thousands of pages of regulations added (and growing)

Then there's Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

He has voiced his opposition to Cruz' filibuster, because in his words the best way to defund Obamacare is to defund Obamacare, in that the US Senate must vote on the bill which the House of Representatives delivered to them.

Cruz is doing the right thing by refusing to settle for symbolic votes, even though the American voters are suffering certain economic turmoil because of this law. McConnell has to play an establishment role, just to make sure that the government is funded until December 15.

Even if Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid succeeds in invoking cloture, and even if he succeeds in removing the House language from the bill which defunds Obama, Cruz will have sounded out the frustrations of millions of Americans about this legislation. He will have provided an avenue for other Republican US Senators to demonstrate their true credentials in support of the people, and against a gargantuan Washington getting bigger. He will have forced the hands of his Democratic colleagues, as well.

But most importantly, Senate Minority Leader McConnell will be able to make the hard decision of joining for cloture, by which time without any doubt the Obamacare albatross will drag down the Democratic caucus and President, and permit Republican legislators to affirm to their constituents that they did everything they could, minus a massive change in the representation, to get rid of Obamacare.

Thank you, Senator Cruz, for taking to the floor and talking this terrible law to death (as best you could)

Thank you, Senator McConnell, for also recognizing the unpleasant verities, that a bill does have to be passed, one which funds the federal government.