Cruz pushes plan to block vote on bill defunding ObamaCare

Sen. Ted Cruz is urging his Republican colleagues to block a procedural vote on a bill that keeps the government open through mid-December while cutting funding from ObamaCare.
The Texas senator, who backed the stopgap measure passed by the GOP-controlled House on Friday, said the vote-blocking strategy is necessary to prevent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from using "procedural gimmicks" to restore funding for the health care law.
�If Reid pursues this plan � if he insists on using a 50-vote threshold to fund ObamaCare with a partisan vote of only Democrats � then I hope that every Senate Republican will stand together and oppose cloture on the bill in order to keep the House bill intact and not let Harry Reid add ObamaCare funding back in," Cruz said in a statement.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, suggested Friday that if the Senate approves a cloture motion to end debate on the House bill, Reid could then return with an amendment to eliminate the ObamaCare defunding language from the bill.