Twenty-one straight hours of standing and addressing the United States Senate does not sound like a productive session of Congress.
Nonetheless, last Tuesday and Wednesday will always be remembered as the days Senator Ted Cruz hijacked the United States Congress with his "filibuster" of sorts.
Cruz's antics were not without intent. Cruz has made the defunding of the Affordable Care Act his own personal mission in life.
Sadly Cruz's actions last week are only the most recent example of how irresponsible the actions of the Tea Party caucus of the Republican Party have become. The party's radicalization is just further evidence of how disconnected Washington has become with what their responsibilities in office are.
Some on the right might compare Cruz's actions last week to Wendy Davis and her famous pink sneakers this summer, but upon closer examination, they are very different. Davis was fighting for a right that has been upheld by the Supreme Court as constitutional. Regardless of what your opinion on abortion is, legally speaking, it is a legal medical procedure in the U.S.
Cruz, on the other hand, is fighting a battle that he will not win. "Obamacare" as the Republicans like to call it, has been fully tested by the American legislative political machine and upheld by the Supreme Court. On top of both of these facts, the 2012 presidential campaign became a de-facto referendum on the Affordable Care Act with Gov. Mitt Romney promising to repeal it in his first day in office. President Barack Obama won the election; the nation is clearly not interested in the repeal of "Obamacare."
All these facts bring us back to Cruz's marathon on Tuesday, conveniently timed to coincide with the debt ceiling debate. Tea Party Republicans are attempting to leverage a national default to defund Obama's trademark piece of legislation. If that is not the definition of extra-constitutional opposition, I do not know what is. Cruz and his friends on the far right claim to be staging this stunt to "protect the regular American" from what they believe is the most ghastly piece of legislation in decades. It seems that the Republicans do not realize that their counterparts on the left have no interest in giving into the Republican threats. As a result, if the Tea Party caucus gets their way, our federal government will shut down today.
The party that claims they are doing this for the common American's welfare will be directly responsible for between 800,000 and 1,000,000 federal employees not bringing a paycheck home to support their family. The party that claims to always support the veteran's interest will prevent over three million American veterans from getting the support they depend on to support themselves. Last time the Republicans shutdown the federal government in 1995-1996, the S&P 500 dropped 3.7 percent. More importantly than any of these truths is that the Tea Party caucus, if they decide to dig their heals in and refuse to compromise, will be responsible for the first federal default in American history, all over a piece of legislation that has passed every form opposition imaginable. The Affordable Care Act is federal law, acknowledge that fact and move on.
Cruz believes that he speaks for the majority of the American people in his fight over the Affordable Care Act. He does not speak for me or the other nearly sixty-six million Americans who rejected the Romney referendum on "Obamacare." If possible, could the Republicans in Washington get back to their job of legislating and not give a repeal bill a 43rd attempt? It's getting exhausting.
-Small is a senior political science and history double major from Zionsville, Ind.