Senator Ted Cruz, who vowed to speak out against Obamacare on the Senate floor ‘until I am no longer able to stand’, has slogged his way into a second day and shows no sign of relenting after speaking for more than 17 hours.
Cruz, who began at 2.41pm on Tuesday, is continuing his crusade to deny funding for Obama’s overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system, branding it the country’s ‘biggest jobs killer’.
With no sign of stopping, Cruz has so far navigated disparate topics including the American revolution, sending a man to the moon, his Cuban-born father and the impact of the health care law.
And in more bizarre moments, he recited an edited version of Dr. Zeus’ ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ poem and compared the fight against Obamacare to the battle against the Nazis.
In surpassing the 16 hour and 12 minute mark this morning, Cruz and his allies notched up the fifth longest occupation of the floor since precise record-keeping began in 1900.
It also eclipsed March’s 12-hour, 52-minute speech by Sen. Rand Paul, who like Cruz is a tea party lawmaker and potential 2016 presidential contender.
Paul was demanding information on the Obama administration’s use of drones to monitor Americans.
Cruz is aiming to scuttle the Senate Democrats’ vote that would send a budget bill back to the house without a measure that would defund the president’s signature health care law.
Conservative Republicans have threatened to level an ultimatum at the president: Defund Obamacare, or risk a government shutdown and the GOP’s refusal to raise the federal government’s all-important debt ceiling.
But the mechanics of advancing the bill were overshadowed by Cruz’s filibuster, which included a reading of Dr. Seuss’ ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ to his daughters back home in Texas.
Read more: dailymail.co.uk
