While Mike Lee and Rand Paul were great speakers, it should be noted that Marco Rubio was outstanding. Waking up early this morning, as he was last night, giving a passionate defense of the free market. He might have stepped out of line with his amnesty bill, but at heart he is a conservative. Here are his early remarks:
To be clear, this was not technically a filibuster (though, I guess it depends on who you ask), but a lengthy floor speech. It seems that Senator Cruz knew it would be coming to an end around noon today before the day's business began, and before Cruz joined Rush Limbaugh on his show.
The Republican argument against what Senator Cruz undertook is that it makes no difference. The continuing resolution to fund the government without Obamacare wasn't going to pass, and no one wants to shut down the government in order to prevent Obamacare from being implemented.
All that might be true, but many of our elected officials have been appointed to fight this monstrosity of a law with every ounce of their being. Senator Ted Cruz did just that. We might be stuck with a terrible law that destroys jobs, is incredibly expensive (make that ridiculously expensive), puts the government between the doctor and the patient, and the American people overwhelmingly don't want, but we're not taking it lying down. That's what the likes of John McCain and Lindsey Graham don't get. No, we don't want the government shutdown, but we will not go quietly into the night on this law. We will fight, and we will be heard. We will #MakeDCListen.
Here are some of the highlights:
"I intend to speak in support of de-funding Obamacare until I am no longer able to stand, to do everything that I can to help Americans stand together and recognize this grand experiment three and a half years ago is quite simply not working."
"Millions of people are asking for accountability, truth, the truth about Obamacare is it's failing the men and women of America. It is time, quite simply, to make D.C. listen."