It looks like a filibuster, it sounds like a filibuster... Senator Cruz held forth on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon to share his thoughts about Obamacare (and everything else). But the vote is scheduled for Wednesday, regardless. So it isn't a filibuster. 
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz staged a fake filibuster Tuesday afternoon, holding forth (to a virtually empty Senate chamber) about his opposition to Obamacare. It doesn’t qualify as a filibuster because he isn’t speaking in order to prevent a vote from taking place. A procedural vote on the budget resolution is scheduled for Wednesday at noon. Cruz is free to speak until then.
A sampling of his zingers:
- “Madam President, I intend to speak in opposition to Obamacare,” he said. “I intend to speak in support of defunding Obamacare until I am no longer able to stand, to do everything that I can to help Americans stand together and recognize this grand experiment three and a half years ago is simply not working.”
- “One of my favorite children’s stories, actually from when I was a kid, was ‘The Little Engine That Could.’ The Little Engine That Could, the train going up that said over and over again, ‘I think I can, I think I can. I think I can.’ You know, if you listen to a lot of the members of this body, the message would be simple: that little engine can’t.”
- “It’s like reading the Hollywood gossip pages. That’s how this is covered,” he said, referring to media coverage of the Affordable Care Act.
- “Where does it say that Obamacare is such a disaster… that staffers would be willing to quit because the quality of health care under Obamacare would be so poor that they’d rather go somewhere else than be subject to those laws.”
- “Imagine a Denny’s combined with a Benihana,” Cruz said of his father’s job as a cook in Texas. He then asserted that his father invented green eggs and ham.
- “I like their little burgers,” he said of White Castle.
- “Some time ago I tweeted a speech Ashton Kutcher gave.”
While Cruz has been talking, his official Twitter account has been live-tweeting several of his message points.
Obamacare is the biggest job-killer in this country. The American people want to stop this madness, and so do I. #MakeDCListen— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) September 24, 2013
We don’t need fake fights. We don’t need fake votes. We need real change. Critical to doing that is stopping Obamacare #MakeDCListen— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) September 24, 2013
Cruz was also briefly backed up with a few words from Republican Sen. Mike Lee.
With reporting from NBC’s Kasie Hunt and Kelly O’Donnell.
