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Sen. Ted Cruz vows bid to block budget bill if it funds healthcare law

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President Obama hugs outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as he stands with Vice President Joe Biden and Sylvia Mathews Burwell, his nominee to replace her.   (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)
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President Obama walks back to the Oval Office with Vice President Joe Biden after delivering a statement cheering the 7 million people who signed up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act.  (Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images)
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In the final hours of Obamacare’s first open enrollment period, Vice President Joe Biden talks to attendees at an Affordable Care Act signup site in Washington, D.C.  (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
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“What the hell is this, a joke?,” asked House Speaker John Boehner during a press conference March 26, after the Obama administration’s latest delay in the Affordable Care Act’s enrollment deadline.  (Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images)
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President Obama leads a Nov. 15 meeting with CEOs from across the health insurance industry at the the White House. Obama met with the executives one day after he announced that for one more year insurance companies could renew those healthcare policies that did not meet new national mandates.  (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
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President Obama pauses while speaking about changes in the implementation of his signature healthcare law.  (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)
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Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee speaks about the number of new healthcare enrollees through CoveredCA.com.  (Max Whittaker / Getty Images)
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Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)
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A sign showing a Washington Post page giving President Obama “four Pinocchios” for his pledge about Americans being able to keep their healthcare plans is displayed during a Senate hearing.   (Michael Reynolds / EPA)
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Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner testifies on Capitol Hill before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.  (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)
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Mario Ricart and Rudy Figueroa, insurance agents with Sunshine Life and Health Advisors, help explain policies that are available to them under the Affordable Care Act at a kiosk setup in Miami.  (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) holds up a tablet showing the HealthCare.gov website during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing.  (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)
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Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for the Department of Health and Human Services, testifies about the rocky healthcare.gov launch.  (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
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President Obama assists a woman who became dizzy during his remarks about the error-plagued launch of the Affordable Care Act’s online enrollment.  (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
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Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius arrives in the Rose Garden of the White House. Her department is scrambling to fix computer problems with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.  (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)
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A woman looks at the home page of healthcare.gov, the website of the federal health insurance marketplace.  (Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images)
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A woman looks at the HealthCare.gov insurance exchange Internet site during its launch Tuesday.  (Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images)
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Ed DelViscio, of Salisbury Township, Pa., blows out candles on a cake decorated to celebrate the birth of Obamacare Tuesday as the Lehigh Valley chapter of Organizing For Action stands outside Lehigh Carbon Community College in Schnecksville, Pa.  (Matt Smith / The Express-Times, Associated Press)
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delivers remarks beside House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi at an event to celebrate the start of open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act.  (Michael Reynolds / EPA)
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President Obama delivers remarks about the launch of Obamacare’s health insurance marketplaces as he’s joined by Americans who will benefit from the law in the Rose Garden of the White House.  (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
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A sign hangs on the door of the room where a Senate Democratic caucus is taking place about the ongoing budget fight on Capitol Hill.  (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)
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House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) walks to a House Republican Conference meeting to discuss the ongoing budget fight on Capitol Hill.  (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)
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U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), left, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), look at a display of the time left until a federal government shutdown.  (Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images)
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Catheryn Carroll of Washington, D.C., berates members of the House Republican caucus while they hold a news conference on the steps of the U.S. Senate.  (Win McNamee / Getty Images)
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks to reporters after ending his lengthy address on the floor of the Senate against Obamacare.  (Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images)
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House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks during her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill.  (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
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Speaker of the House John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) listens to House Republican colleagues speak at a news conference at the Capitol.  (Win McNamee / Getty Images)
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President Obama speaks about the federal healthcare law at Prince Georges Community College in Largo, Md.  (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) continues to speak on the floor of the Senate at 5:21 a.m. Washington time (2:21 a.m. PST) on Wednesday.  (C-SPAN / Associated Press)
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) leaves after the weekly Senate Republican Policy Committee luncheon on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.  (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) responds to questions from the media after a Senate Democratic Policy Committee luncheon on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.  (Michael Reynolds / EPA)
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks in support of defunding the Affordable Care Act at a meeting of the conservative Heritage Foundation in Dallas.  (Michael Ainsworth / Associated Press)
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Speaker of the House John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and congressional Republicans rally after passing a bill that would prevent a government shutdown while crippling funding for the Affordable Care Act.  (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)
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Tea party activists listen to speakers during the Exempt America from Obamacare rally on Capitol Hill.  (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
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President Obama hugs Carol Metcalf, whose son has a rare genetic lung disease, before delivering remarks on the Affordable Care Act in the White House.  (Michael Reynolds / EPA)
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) speaks to the media about efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act.  (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)
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The short form for the new federal healthcare program is shown.  (J. David Ake / Associated Press)
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks during the Exempt America from Obamacare rally on Capitol Hill.  (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
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Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius waits to be introduced during the opening plenary of the National Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.  (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
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An opponent of President Obama’s healthcare law demonstrates outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.  (David Goldman / Associated Press)
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Amy Brighton from Medina, Ohio, holds a sign in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., earlier this year.  (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)
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Milton Vazquez, an organizer for Get Covered America, stands with a clipboard at the Hialeah Literacy Fair in Hialeah, Fla. The program is part of the Enroll America initiative, which is focusing on raising public awareness about the new healthcare options starting Oct. 1 under the Affordable Care Act.  (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
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Scott and Danielle Nelson and their two children, Dane Nelson, 3, and Taylor Nelson, 7, play at an Aliso Viejo park in July. The couple pay $650 a month for an Aetna healthcare policy. Aetna is leaving the state at year’s end and Danielle was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
By Lisa Mascaro
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WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz vowed Sunday he would seek to stop legislation to keep the government running unless President Obama agrees to defund the nation’s new healthcare law.

The potential presidential contender from Texas has taken the lead in the Senate in a politically risky effort that has sparked divisions within the GOP. Although conservative and tea party groups have rallied to his cause, Cruz acknowledged Sunday he did not yet have enough GOP senators willing to launch a filibuster that could shut down the government. But he’s working on it.

“I believe we should stand our ground,” Cruz said on “Fox News Sunday.” “This has been a fast-moving target. You know, just a few weeks ago we didn’t have anywhere near the votes we needed in the House or in the Senate,” he said. “It’s now our turn to unify, to stand together with House Republicans.”

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House Republicans have made stopping the Affordable Care Act their top priority before the healthcare law’s new online marketplaces open for business Oct. 1, the start of the new federal fiscal year.

Late last week, the House GOP approved legislation that would defund the healthcare law as part of a bill to keep the government running past Sept. 30.

Senate Republicans now find themselves in a bind. Because Democrats have the majority in the upper chamber, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to easily have the 51 votes needed to strip the healthcare provision from the bill, keeping Obama’s signature domestic achievement intact.

Cruz is pushing his fellow GOP senators not to let the bill advance to that stage. In a move that has drawn criticism from within his party, Cruz argued that Republicans’ only hope is to mount a filibuster to stop the entire bill, refusing to give their support to cross the required 60-vote threshold to proceed to the legislation.

That creates a complicated procedural argument, as was seen over the weekend as the conservative Heritage Action supported the bill in the House but on Saturday urged senators to block it. When the debate starts this week the Senate will have just a few days to act before government funding for routine services, including keeping national parks open and providing pay for soldiers, would run out by Oct. 1.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

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Twitter: LisaMascaroinDC

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Lisa Mascaro

Lisa Mascaro previously covered Congress in Washington, D.C., for the Los Angeles Times. She left in February 2018. A Los Angeles-area native, she has reported across Southern California, edited, traveled the States and worked in Texas. While the Washington correspondent for the Las Vegas Sun, she contributed as the paper won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. An economics and political science graduate of UC Santa Barbara, she also studied in Budapest, Hungary.

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