Leaders of the effort to defund the health care law pointed to Friday’s vote to defund Obamacare as a legislative victory and provided additional insight into their plan if the legislation does not succeed in the Senate on Sunday.
"If Harry Reid kills this bill in the Senate, I think the House should hold it’s ground and should begin passing smaller continuing resolutions one department at a time," Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said on Fox News Sunday.
"Start with the military. Fund the military. Send it over, and let’s see if Harry Reid is willing to shut down the military just because he wants to force Obamacare on the American people. I think that would be a very perilous decision for Harry Reid to make," Cruz said.
The House passed the 2014 Defense Appropriations Bill, a separate bill to fund the military, in late July.
Cruz’s statement showed that the senators leading the charge do not intend to back down despite concern from Republicans and political analysts.
"In my view, Senate Republicans should stand united to stop Harry Reid from changing the House bill and in particular from inserting the funding for Obamacare with fifty-one votes. That’s going to be the fight, is procedurally whether he’s able to use a straight party line vote, use just Democrats, to put Obamacare back," said Cruz.
"The first order of business is going to be to ask Harry Reid if he will agree to allow amendments to be subject to a sixty vote threshold, and that’s typical in the Senate. We have a lot of amendments that are subject to sixty vote thresholds," Cruz said.
"Now in all likelihood he’s going to say no. … If he does that then Senate Republicans have the tool that we always use when the majority leader is abusing his power, which is we can deny cloture," Cruz said.
Many pundits say the proposal is a nonstarter and various Republicans continue to criticize Cruz and those leading the charge for neglecting to consult with the party or provide a tangible endgame.
"This was a strategy laid out by Mike Lee and Ted Cruz without any consultation with their colleagues," Karl Rove told Fox News Sunday.
"Mike Lee, of Utah, lays it out on July 9 without having ever brought it up at the Thursday meetings of the Senators to say ‘we’ve got an idea.’ I would suggest today, with all due respect to my junior senator from Texas, I suspect that this was the first time the endgame was described to any Republican senator. They had to tune in to listen to you to find out what Ted’s next step was in the strategy," said Rove.
"You cannot build a congressional majority in either party for any kind of action unless you are treating your colleagues with a certain amount of respect … instead they have dictated to their colleagues through the media and through public statements and not consulted them about this strategy at all," said Rove.
When asked if he believed there would be a government shutdown, as a result of this plan, Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah.) told NBC’s David Gregory, "No. We all know that the government is going to be funded, the question is whether it will be funded with Obamacare or without."
"We have support in the Senate," Lee said.
"All 45 Republicans in the Senate in March voted to defund Obamacare. We will keep those and add a 46th, Jeff Chiesa from New Jersey. I hope that a few Senate Democrats, particularly those from red states who are up for reelection this year, will consider joining us because this is what the American people want us to do and need us to do."
However, this plan has not resonated with all Senate Republicans.
Sens. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) and Richard Burr (R., N.C.) have consistently said it is an imprudent idea.
Fourteen senators have signed onto Lee’s "Don’t Fund It" letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), but political analyst say the odds of it passing the Senate are essentially nonexistent.
There are eight days remaining to reach a deal before the federal government will shut down.