How Ted Cruz Could Personally Delay the New Senate Bill and Send the Country into Chaos

Official government portrait.

That was quick! The Senate just about has itself a debt-ceiling-raising deal. Its terms, per Politico: “[R]eopen the government through January 15, lift the debt ceiling through February 7, and develop a bicameral budget committee that would be required to develop a conference report by December 13.”

Thanks to some procedural finagling, lawmakers are allowing (forcing?) the House to vote on the bill first, thereby “[eliminating] some burdensome procedural hurdles in the Senate and require just one procedural roll call with a 60-vote threshold needed to advance the bill toward final passage in the Senate.” That is: if Senator Ted Cruz (R–Ted Cruz’s Ego) allows it! Cruz could “easily force Congress to miss the deadline by slowing down the Senate with procedural moves,” The Atlantic Wire reports. “That’s even if Senate Democrats wrangle up enough votes to bypass a filibuster attempt.” But, but, but—

The potential stalls come from the Senate’s own rules. Once the Senate reaches a deal on the debt ceiling, Reid is expected to bring up the trimmings of the deal as an amendment to an existing bill to raise the debt ceiling. That bill is currently on hold, and pending a cloture vote, could proceed quickly to the next stop: 30 hours of debate. But Senate leadership would likely want to waive that debate period, which required unanimous consent from the Senate. If Cruz, or any other Senator wants to, he could deny that consent, and force the Senate into 30 hours of extra time on the deal.

Asked this morning by CBS whether he would jeopardize the stability of the republic for 30 sweet, sweet hours on C-SPAN, Cruz would only say: “I’m heading to this meeting.”

At least the nation now has an epitaph ready for its tombstone:

The United States of America
“I’m Heading to This Meeting”