The House voted overwhelmingly to pass the CR today which failed to cut one cent from Obamacare.  30 members signed the Bridenstine-Huelskamp letter asking leadership to defund Obamacare through the CR.  16 members voted against the rule to bring up the CR, some of which hadn’t signed the letter.  Only 14 members voted against the CR.  In other words, several members took the drastic step of opposing a rule, yet voted for the bill.  All this confusion is above my pay grade.  Nonetheless, here is the tally:

Now the CR moves on to the Senate.  Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have taken up the campaign to defund Obamacare, as noted in these pages.

At this point, it’s relevant to reflect on the Rand Paul filibuster over the issue of drone strikes on American citizens on American soil.  Many conservatives have been reinvigorated watching Rand Paul and some of his allies on the floor engaging in an old fashioned filibuster in order to defend the Constitution and separations of powers.   Watching the filibuster, the thought occurred to me that this is exactly what should have been done with Obamacare in 2009/2010.  Why didn’t Mitch McConnell use every parliamentary procedure to block Obamacare?  More relevant to today, these same senators should engage in the same educational filibuster against funding Obamacare next week when the Senate considers the CR.   If nothing else, we’re long overdue for a national discussion over Obamacare, personal liberty, and free markets.  We need to take this #StandWithRand show and run with it.

Then again, times are changing in Washington, at least in the Senate.  As my good friend Wes Goodman noted on twitter, “thanks to Senators Trey Grayson, Charlie Crist, David Dewhurst, and Bill Bennett for leading this filibuster for freedom.”  Throw in Arlen Specter, notes Moe Lane.

Primaries do matter, and from now on we’re looking for game-changers.  Amazingly enough, we might have a larger percentage of them in the Senate than in the House.