-By Warner Todd Huston
The Republican establishment led by such folks as Senators Mitch McConnell and John McCain don’t want to fight the Democrats. But after this latest Obamacare funding fight, we have discovered that there is a side they will attack: other Republicans.
Those Republicans who voted “yes” on Friday’s cloture vote in the Senate knowingly voted in favor of funding Obamacare. There is no other way around that simple truth.
There was absolutely no doubt that a “yes” vote would give Democrat leader Harry Reid the power to remove all the features that the House put in the budget bill that would defund Obamacare. GOP “yes” voters knew this without doubt. And, true to that assumption, only minutes after the DR was passed with Republican assistance, Reid did just that. He stripped out all aspect of defunding from the CR budget bill.
Yet, twenty-five Republicans voted “yes,” anyway.
Even while these RINO senators were turning tail and running from the fight against Obamacare and refusing to fight the Democrats, they did find a reason to attack someone. They attacked Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and all conservatives that want to be rid of Obamacare.
Take John McCain, for instance. The long-time Senator that is past his sell by date, attacked Cruz on TV and also from the floor of the Senate and did so with help from his close personal friend and leader Harry Reid.
Here are the Senators that knowingly voted with the Democrats in order to allow Harry Reid to strip House language that would defund Obamacare:
- Alexander (R-TN)
- Ayotte (R-NH)
- Barrasso (R-WY)
- Blunt (R-MO)
- Boozman (R-AR)
- Burr (R-NC)
- Chambliss (R-GA)
- Chiesa (R-NJ)
- Coats (R-IN)
- Coburn (R-OK)
- Cochran (R-MS)
- Collins (R-ME)
- Corker (R-TN)
- Cornyn (R-TX)
- Graham (R-SC)
- Hoeven (R-ND)
- Isakson (R-GA)
- Johanns (R-NE)
- Kirk (R-IL)
- McCain (R-AZ)
- McConnell (R-KY)
- Murkowski (R-AK)
- Thune (R-SD)
- Wicker (R-MS)
Now many of these senators will claim that they absolutely did not vote in favor of Obamacare. But there are two points that need to be made, here. Firstly, if their vote was a vote against Obamacare, why did every single Democrat vote the same way these RINOs did? If it was an anti-Obamacare vote, do you really think the Democrats would vote for it?
Secondly, the only fight these RINO senators seem to want to have is one with conservatives and Tea Partiers. So, what we have here is the GOP establishment siding with Democrats and against their own voters.
Lastly I’ll make a point clear in response to John McCain. McCain is running around claiming that because the Democrats won the late presidential election we need to give them everything they want because “elections have consequences.”
If this fool can tell me when Democrats ever just bent over backwards to allow victorious Republicans their was because “elections have consequences,” then I’ll lend him the point. But they never, ever govern that way. They always act as if their opposition is of supreme importance.
Republicans should emulate that.
For your info, here are the Republicans that actually cast a vote against Obamacare:
- Crapo (R-ID)
- Cruz (R-TX)
- Enzi (R-WY)
- Fischer (R-NE)
- Grassley (R-IA)
- Heller (R-NV)
- Inhofe (R-OK)
- Lee (R-UT)
- Moran (R-KS)
- Paul (R-KY)
- Portman (R-OH)
- Risch (R-ID)
- Roberts (R-KS)
- Rubio (R-FL)
- Scott (R-SC)
- Sessions (R-AL)
- Shelby (R-AL)
- Toomey (R-PA)
- Vitter (R-LA)
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, MrConservative.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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