Ted Cruz invokes Dr Seuss and the Nazis to delay healthcare bill

Ted Cruz invoked children’s books, hamburgers and professional wrestling as the Texas senator entered his 15th hour of a marathon speech in an attempt to cut off funding for President Barack Obama’s healthcare law.

Seizing control of the US Senate floor on Tuesday at 2.42pm (6:42pm GMT), the one-time Princeton University debating champion launched into a marathon speech – which looked like an old-fashioned Washington filibuster, but was not expected to derail the spending bill because of procedural rules.

Within half an hour Mr Cruz, who harbours presidential ambitions, had compared his critics to UK prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of the Nazis. He evoked the image of the children’s book The Little Engine that Could – in which a small train repeatedly tells itself “I think I can” as it climbs a seemingly insurmountable hill – and compared the House of Congress to World Wrestling Entertainment.

In a surreal moment at about 8pm local time, he read aloud from Dr Seuss’s Green Eggs & Ham, comparing the main character’s refusal to eat green eggs and ham to the American public’s refusal to support Obamacare – placing the children’s story into the Congressional record.

Mr Cruz may have been trying to emulate the tactics of two legislators who became political celebrities after engaging in filibusters: Rand Paul, the Kentucky senator who took aim at US drone policy and temporarily blocked confirmation of Mr Obama’s nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, and Wendy Davis, the Democratic state senator from Texas who temporarily blocked the passage of an anti-abortion law in the state.

Under Senate rules, Mr Cruz must yield the floor by 12pm on Wednesday for a previously scheduled procedural vote. At that time, Democrats and Republicans are expected to come together and begin moving the government funding bill towards approval, with a final vote likely on Sunday.

Republicans uniformly agree with Mr Cruz that “Obamacare is a disaster,” but most view blocking it as a political impossibility as long as Democrats control the Senate and hold the presidency.

Senior Republicans want to pass an emergency spending bill by September 30 that would avoid a federal government shutdown. But Mr Cruz, who is supported by the anti-Washington Tea Party movement, wants to block any government funding bill unless it defunds the healthcare plan.

Once the bill passes a procedural hurdle known as cloture, Democrats will be able to strip out the language that disrupts the health reform legislation.

The spending measure will then be sent back to the lower chamber, where its fate will lie in the hands of John Boehner, the Republican speaker. John Feehery, a Republican lobbyist, said he believed Mr Boehner would pass a “clean” extension of the temporary funding bill with the support of Republicans and Democrats, therefore avoiding a government shutdown.

Efforts by conservative Republicans to disrupt the healthcare law have raised serious questions about a separate fight over an increase in the nation’s debt limit, which will have to be passed by Congress by mid-October if the US is to avoid possible default.

However, Moody’s, the rating agency, on Tuesday shrugged off the possibility that Washington may fail to raise the $16.7tn debt ceiling in time to avoid a technical default, even as the White House and Republicans remained deadlocked on the issue.

The view reflects a diverging level of confidence between Washington and Wall Street about how the US will extricate itself from the messy fiscal fights.

While Washington is not in panic mode over a possible default, political leaders have been silent on how the impasse over the budget and spending limit may be solved.