Once again, Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz (R-TX) created problems for other Republicans with his last-minute drama over the Senate’s vote to raise the debt limit.
John Boehner moved to pass a clean debt-ceiling increase on Tuesday with the increase expected to easily pass in the Democratic controlled Senate.
Yes once again, Ted Cruz had other ideas, announcing that he would filibuster the bill forcing a 60-vote threshold to invoke cloture. Passage of this increase was critical, as reported by the Atlantic:
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the nation would hit the debt limit at the end of the month, and with Congress on recess until February 25, Wednesday’s vote was almost do or die.
With Senate Democrats voting for the measure en masse, the vote still fell 2 vote short with only 58 voting in the affirmative. After a tense 45- minutes on the Senate floor, it finally fell on Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn to reach that 60 vote threshold to end the filibuster. Several other Republicans such as John McCain ended up voting with Democrats in an effort to minimize the damage to McConnell and Cornyn, both of whom are facing primary challenges this year.
The final vote on cloture came in at 67-31, with the Senate passing the increase with a vote count of 55-43. It is noteworthy that the measure only required a simple majority to pass.
You can watch a news clip, below, from CNN:
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