As the first federal government shutdown in 17 years entered its second day on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) accused House Republicans of taking orders not from Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), but Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
“They’re obsessed with Obamacare. Well now they’ve gotten their way. They shut down the government,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “As (Minnesota Rep. Michele) Bachmann said, ‘it’s exactly what we wanted and we got it.’ But none of their whacky ideas are any closer to becoming law.
“Instead of reading the writing on the wall, House Republicans have turned to a new idea: To cherry-pick a few parts of the got they like,” he added. “Credit for this idea goes, I’m told, goes to the junior senator from Texas. He goes over to the House and tells them what they should do, he along with people like Bachmann and the tea party.”
Cruz floated a piecemeal approach to funding the government if Senate Democrats refused to give way on the health care law a few days before House Republicans introduced several bills funding only the Department of Veteran Affairs, the National Parks Service and the Washington, D.C., government.
