Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz ended his overnight filibuster-style speech against funding Obamacare at noon on Wednesday, after he had held court on the Senate floor for a whopping 21 hours and 19 minutes.
“The defense of Obamacare is now indefensible,” Cruz said near the end of his speech.
Cruz started arguing, at 2:42 p.m. on Tuesday, against moving forward on government-funding legislation that would actually defund the health care law like he wants, because he said allowing the legislation to proceed now will make it easier for Democrats to strip out the defunding provision later. Republicans leaders are not supporting his tactic.
“The pleas from the American people in Texas are deafening,” Cruz said. “The frustration that the U.S. Senate doesn’t listen to the people is deafening. So I would call all 46 Republicans to unite, to stand together to vote against cloture on this bill.”