Editorial:

If politics is your thing and you enjoy the give and take between Democrats and Republicans then the filibuster put on by Senator Ted Cruz was there for your enjoyment, 21 long hours of Cruz rambling on, mostly about nothing in particular.

CNN junkies got to listen to Cruz as he read “Green Eggs and Ham”, compare himself to Ashton Kutcher and somehow managed to work in a Nazi analogy for those who didn’t join his anti-Obamacare fight.

In reality, the Cruz filibuster was not about eliminating the funding for Obamacare! He did not have the votes or support even from his own Party to have a realistic hope for that. No, the filibuster was about Ted Cruz and boosting his profile and maybe making himself a person of choice for the next Presidential election.

Senator John McCain, who spoke after Cruz yielded the floor, put the debate over Obamacare into perspective, “We fought as hard as we could in a fair and honest manner and we lost,” he said. “I campaigned all over America for two months (in 2012), everywhere I could, and in every single campaign rally I said we have to repeal and replace Obamacare. Well, the people spoke. … That doesn’t mean that we give up our efforts to try to replace and repair Obamacare. But it does mean that elections have consequences.”

When it was all said and done, Cruz joined the 99 other senators in voting to proceed with the debate on the legislation Cruz sought to block.

This of course does not mean the fight over the funding for Obamacare is over, to the contrary it is in mid-fight. After the Senate puts together their proposal for a budget it will then go before the Congress where Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) can add their attachments to the budget bill in an attempt to curtail Obamacare. In addition, all this, it must be done before Oct. 1 to keep the government functioning. Without a budget bill there will not be any money for the government to operate.

So, once again the Republicans will be playing the same old tired hand of holding the budget hostage to get their way. The art of compromise, the give and take between Parties working for the betterment of government is gone. Now partisan politics rule the day, and this week Republican Ted Cruz is the face of partisan politicking.

If, as Cruz has stated, he was listening to the will of the voters, the voters have spoken when they reelected Obama. The voters have spoken where the polls show their support for Obamacare. And polls have shown most Americans are against defunding Obamacare!

Then there is the humanistic side of the debate that gets short shifted. 48 million people who are uninsured today will be eligible to sign up for health care insurance on Oct. 1. Young folks who are either just starting out in their job or still going to college will continue to be covered under their parents plan. The cost of insurance for those who are paying for a private insurance policy will see significant savings, for example someone paying $600 per month, could see their monthly payment go down to $200 per month. A Pre-existing condition will not disqualify you nor put you into a higher insurance rate. The cost of prescription medicine will be reduced.

Then there is the impact on the discussion about immigration reform. Immigration reform has taken a back seat to the debate over Obamacare and with the focus on the budget and then the issue of raising the debt ceiling to follow, the future of immigration reform this year is on the verge of collapsing.

Will the Republicans listen to the majority of folks who want Obamacare, and the millions of people who need health-care coverage? Probably not, they will hold the budget hostage and try to extract as much as possible while the government grinds down to a halt. In the meantime Obamacare will go on, folks will start signing up come Oct 1 no matter what happens in Washington.

The question will be, how will the Republicans save face if the budget doesn’t get done and they are blamed for the shutdown?