2013 Obamacare Fight Vindicated
We were right and the Democrats just proved it
Twelve years ago, Senate Conservatives Fund supporters did something that took real courage. You picked up the phone. You called your members of Congress. You stood with Ted Cruz during his 21-hour filibuster against Obamacare. You backed House Republicans who passed a spending bill that funded every single part of the federal government — except Obamacare.
And then Mitch McConnell stabbed us all in the back.
McConnell and Senate Republican leadership didn’t just refuse to stand with conservatives — they went on television and repeated Harry Reid’s talking points. They attacked Ted Cruz. They attacked Mike Lee. They attacked us. They attacked you. They did the Democrats’ work for them. The government shut down, the press blamed us, and the Republicans who undermined the effort used the chaos they helped create as their excuse to surrender.
We’ve been living with the consequences of that betrayal ever since.
Democrat Masterclass
Now fast-forward to today and watch what the Democrats just did.
Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats had no leverage. None. They don’t control the House. They don’t control the Senate. They don’t control the White House. In 2013, Republicans at least controlled the House of Representatives. Democrats right now control nothing — and they still forced a deal on funding by doing exactly what we argued Republicans should have done back then.
They stood together. They demanded Congress fund everything except what they opposed — in this case, ICE and CBP. And they held.
You didn’t see Chuck Schumer going on television to attack Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. You didn’t see Democrat leaders repeating Republican talking points. You saw unity. Discipline. The kind of resolve that actually moves the needle in Washington.
Ted Cruz said it plainly on his podcast this week: “What I was trying to do regarding Obamacare in 2013 is what Chuck Schumer just did concerning ICE and CBP.”
The strategy worked for them, and it would have worked for us. But the Republican establishment just wouldn’t let it.
The argument they made in 2013 was that Barack Obama would never make concessions on Obamacare because it was his signature legislative achievement.
Sound familiar? Of course it does — because it’s the same kind of defeatist thinking the consultant class in Washington always reaches for when they want to talk you out of fighting.
And yet — what was the singular issue Donald Trump was re-elected on in 2024? Securing the border. The Democrats, with zero institutional power, just forced a negotiation over funding for the very agencies that enforce that agenda. Because they were willing to fight. Because they stood together.
The lesson from 2013 hasn’t changed. It’s just been confirmed by the opposing team running the same play and winning.
Cancel the Recess
Right now, the fight over homeland security funding is sitting in Washington while Republican members of Congress are on recess. Vacation. Gone.
This is unacceptable.
The American people sent Republicans to Washington with a House majority, a Senate majority, and a president who ran on securing the border. The Democrats just showed that a unified minority can force concessions from a majority that isn’t paying attention. How much more could a unified majority accomplish?
Republicans need to end their recess now and return to Washington. This fight is too important, and the stakes are too high to be handled on a part-time basis from an in-state office or a beach house.
The Senate Conservatives Fund has always believed that Republicans win when they fight — and lose when they fold. The Democrats just gave us a masterclass in the strategy we pioneered in 2013. The only question now is whether Republican leadership has learned anything, or whether Mitch McConnell’s ghost still haunts the Senate cloakroom.
We were right in 2013. The strategy was right. The fight was right. But our leaders were wrong.
The establishment failed us then, and they’re failing us now.
Thankfully, more and more people see the problem and are speaking out. They’re contacting their senators and demanding that they come back to Washington. And President Trump agrees.
It’s time for Republicans to match the Democrats’ intensity and to remember why they were elected.
What do you think? Do you agree?
