A deluge of updated information has been acquired, some of which requires corroboration; for example, someone reported that

Reid is threatening to abrogate a commitment [made only a few months ago] that yielded confirmation of key people by invoking the nuclear option [simple-majority vote] to attain prompt Senate passage of a CR that funds ObamaCare [thereby limiting debate], behavior that explains why Congressional Leaders Get Low Marks as Fiscal Fight Looms. BHO will probably dominate the news on Monday/Tuesday due to events @ the UN-General Assembly; nevertheless, a few key-updates are provided, noting that Sen. Cruz correctly views the Vote in House to defund ObamaCare as 'historic': Senator Ted Cruz will join Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday to discuss what comes next in the fight to #DefundObamaCare. It is clear that hes the leader of this effort, recognized even by a politician [who wants to compete with him for the POTUS-16 nod] and a critic [who is channeling the GOP-Establishment] to have led the House strategy; note that the former [gop-rep-peter-king claimed cruz should-keep-quiet] and the latter, [david-brooks pled for the gop-leadership-to-show-ted-cruz-whos-boss! have angst. This is the latest encyclical from the Heritage Foundation, perhaps generated by awareness of the above concern regarding potential-tricks that Reid may be contemplating; note the absence of gloating:

NO on Striking Defund Language Next week, the Senate is likely to consider the House-passed year-end funding bill (H.J.Res.59), which also permanently defunds ObamaCare. According to multiple media reports, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may use a post-cloture amendment, which would allow him to alter the bill with a 50-vote threshold, thus gutting the essential defunding language secured by the House. Before Reid can move to eliminate the defunding language, he must first secure 60 votes to invoke cloture. That vote, which is likely to come late next week, is a procedural motion that would facilitate efforts by Reid and others to strip the defunding language from H.J.Res.59. If Reid uses this procedural trick, a vote on the motion to invoke cloture is a vote to undermine the House-passed bill. If opponents of ObamaCare unite against Reids procedural power play by denying cloture, the language defunding ObamaCare will remain intact, proving that the Senate cannot move a CR that funds ObamaCare. Heritage Action opposes procedural motions that facilitate efforts to strip the defunding language and reserves the right to include such vote(s) on the legislative scorecard. As noted throughout the Internet, to quote Guzzardi [citing My Fair Lady], We Did It! It is necessary, however, prior to drawing major conclusions, to confront key-concerns with those who have belatedly seen-the-lightso that the reader can be forewarned if/when these people/groups attempt to relapse, perhaps opining in a fashion that could subtly tarnish this valiant effort. This is a focused-effort, linked neither to the debt-ceiling [regardless of A.B. Stoddards editorial-comments on FNC yesterday @ noon] nor to the sequester [regardless of the punditry emanating from MSNBC/CNN, c/o the Dsof course].

Already addressed were comments by A.B. Stoddard on MSNBC [trashing Cruz] and on FNC [gamely suggesting a compromise would occur, despite inability to explain-away chronological contradictions], and also noted have been efforts to chew around the edges @ this late-date [such as amendments blocking Congressional carve-outs]; at this point, the goal is to starve the dragon, not feed it orts. [Yet, noted is the vicious collegial reaction to efforts by Vitter to accomplish this, a few days ago: To hold onto their illegal ObamaCare subsidy that no other American earning $174,000 could get, members of Congress are trying to silence the subsidys chief critic, Sen. David Vitters, by dredging up a 2007 unproven accusation that Vitters patronized a prostitute before being elected to the Senate.] First, consider the local Independence Hall entity [Tea Party Association, P.A.C., Foundation] run by the Adams-siblings; it was first to endorse Romney, but is finally last to endorse defunding. It should be noted that this-physician personally extended an invitation to attend our post-Labor Day get-together; responding to having purposefully been kept in the loop was this overt-snub of unification-efforts [which inter alia reflects the psychological inability to have gotten over it regarding the 12 election], rebuffs which were honored thereafter as everybody else quickly unified behind the Press Release [noting also the inability to ID people in Bucks County who harbored any fealty to their judgments]: To All, Please know that the Independence Hall Tea Party takes its direction solely from its Board of Directors and Executive Officers--and prides itself on its Independence as an organization. (It is not affiliated with any national organization. However, it does, from time to time, join issue-oriented coalitions with other conservative groups.) No other individual or organization has the right to speak on behalf of the Independence Hall Tea Party--as was maliciously done in a 2010 letter to Mike Fitzpatrick. That letter, which called for a boycott of his campaign, was authored and signed by several Bucks County Tea Party leaders immediately after Mike won the Republican Primary. The Independence Hall Tea Party's name was affixed to the letter without consultation or permission. Any future attempt to inappropriately use the Independence Hall Tea Party name in press releases or other publications, without written permission, will be met with appropriate action. (For the record, the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC endorsed Mike Fitzpatrick in the primary and was very proud of his role in firing Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.) Regarding the current issue--as you all know, over the past four years, the Independence Hall Tea Party has worked tirelessly to defeat ObamaCare. Its PAC was the only Tea Party PAC in the nation to endorse and support Governor Mitt Romney for President--and had he been elected, ObamaCare would be sitting on the ash heap of history. In recent weeks, members of the Independence Hall Tea Party Board have met with several of our region's Republican Congressional Delegation and are in the process of meeting with several more.

In our frank discussions, we have come to realize that the Republican strategy to delay and defund ObamaCare has not yet been fully fleshed out and we are withholding comment and judgement [sic] until the appropriate time. We have conveyed our hope that Congressional Republicans will be able to devise a unified strategy that focuses on delaying and defunding the implementation of ObamaCare to the greatest extent possible. We believe a unified front is the only way we can possibly defeat this disastrous piece of legislation at this very late hour. In the meantime, we ask that you respect the right of the Independence Hall Tea Party to reach its own conclusions regarding this extremely volatile issue--especially as it relates to the region's Republican Congressional delegation. May God bless our great nation, Don Adams PS Due to time constraints, I will not be answering any further emails on this topic and would kindly ask to be removed from this email chain. Then recall the simultaneous public-stance, as per its blast e-mail [and posture adopted during meetings with Congressmen], as blasted in a prior memo [3/9/2013]in case anyone is checking. Consider the just-received blast from the Independence Hall Tea Party Association which, it may be recalled, had directly communicated [to moi] that it had yet to have adopted a posture regarding the overall defunding effort [seeking unity, as a priority]; this was a shocker, for most everyone else nationally [in the TPM] had long-ago adopted a muscular anti-funding posture. Instead, it reported a potentially-desirable endpoint [In particular, on ObamaCare, Congressman Gerlach has suggested a compelling defunding strategy similar to one recently published in the National Review.]; problematic, however, is the disconnect between cited-literature [First, Republicans control the House of Representatives, the birthplace of spending bills. They should exercise their constitutional power and imminently consider language that funds everything but ObamaCare.] and the absence of his signature on Graves/Meadows. Sadly, despite having achieved a certain success last year when hosting Romney @ the Franklin Institute on 4/15/2012, the inability to sheath the long-knives is evinced in its blasts during the past two days [vide infra]; note how far afield the overnight blast wanders [blatantly attacking people with whom they should want to collaborate] and note how reluctantly the vote-result is acknowledged. Then recall how personal efforts to invite them to a meeting in Bucks County of all the TEA Party Groups [which led to the Press Releases] had been rebuffed to wit {emphasis added, with its import to be discussed following provision of the complete database}: September 20, 2013, 2 AM Dear Friends,

The PAC is sending you this urgent message because the imminent vote on ObamaCare is as much a political matter as it is a matter of public policy. But before we write another word, we refer you to five excellent articles on the topic: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/play-should-bedelay_754041.html http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/18/scalise-more-members-movingtoward-ObamaCare-delay-tactic www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/08/04/republicans_need_to_u nite_over_ObamaCare_delay_119491.html http://www.nationaljournal.com//member/daily/congress-is-finding-away-to-avoid-a-shutdown-20130918 http://www.nationalreview.com/article/358499/ObamaCare-defeatistsavik-roy As all of you know far too well, we are at war with forces that seek to entangle the federal government in every aspect of our lives. This philosophy of governance, which is slowly being implemented, will eventually lead to an unprecedented loss of liberty. Had the Republican Party, with the help of the Tea Party, not recaptured the House of Representatives and fired Nancy Pelosi in 2010, these forces would have marched us even further down the path of socialism. In a short two years of complete Democratic rule (2008-2010), the federal government, among other devastating policies, seized control of 1/6 the nation's economy through the very partisan, so-called 'Affordable Health Care Act.' After the disheartening June 2012 US Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare, the only means left by which we could have repealed this disastrous law was through the ballot box. And in that endeavor, we failed--big-time--in the following November election. Not only did we fail to win the White House, but we also failed to win the Senate--and neither goal was originally beyond our reach. Many in the Tea Party, for various reasons (including self-interest) sat on the sidelines and refused to help Mitt Romney win the Presidency. Two of the wealthiest Tea Party affiliated PACS--FreedomWorks PAC and Tea Party Express--never even endorsed the former Governor. (FreedomWorks actually waged a stop Romney campaign during primary season.)

Tea Party Patriots leader, Jenny Beth Martin, was nothing but critical of the Republican nominee. Ms. Martin was finally--and appropriately--rebuked by Ann Coulter. (Note: Sadly, the Independence Hall Tea Party PAC was the first and only Tea Party PAC in the nation to endorse Governor Romney.) Now that we are facing the consequences of electoral defeat, FreedomWorks, Tea Party Express, and Tea Party Patriots, along with Heritage Action, are screaming the loudest for a federal government shutdown--as if shutting down the government were the goal of our movement as opposed to stopping the pending implementation of ObamaCare. As you know, a forced government shutdown could very well lead to a conservative political defeat in the 2014 elections--as President Obama and the media will surely lay blame for the shutdown at the feet of House Republicans. Minus a controversial shutdown, we are on the verge of reclaiming the Senate and expanding control of the House. As much as we might deplore John Boehner's leadership, are we really prepared for the return of Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker? What roadblocks would then remain in place to stop the Democrats from passing an open borders bill or creating a single-payer healthcare system or bombing Syria? Having said all of this, we do concede that if there were ever an issue worthy of a government shutdown, it is ObamaCare. We most certainly respect those who have thoughtfully backed this strategy. The idea is not unreasonable given the urgency of our nation's predicament. However, there is one fatal flaw with its rationale. In the end, a government shutdown would not defeat ObamaCare. Even if the Senate were to go along, President Obama would never, ever agree to the dismantling of the centerpiece of his two-term presidency. It is, he hopes, his lasting legacy. And when the President refuses to go along, what recourse will be left to Republicans? Their leadership would eventually have to surrender and admit defeat. Fortunately for us, over 200 House Republicans are uniting behind a defund and delay strategy that would, in all likelihood, avoid a government shutdown. And this unified approach by House Republicans is a much better plan. (Division among Republicans would only weaken their bargaining position with Harry Reid and the President--enabling Democrats to maintain the status quo.)

As part of the Continuing Resolution, they will defund ObamaCare and force the Senate to vote on it on the issue for the first time since its passage. If, as expected, the Senate does not go along with defunding (thank you, very much, John McCain), the House will offer legislation to keep the government operating. A few weeks later, however, the Debt Ceiling crisis will emerge. At that point, Republicans will be in a much better position to negotiate with the President and Senator Reid. Expect Republicans to offer, and possibly get, a one year delay in the implementation of the individual mandate; the rescinding of the medical device tax; and other smaller concessions. These components of the law are crucial for ObamaCare's implementation. Without them, ObamaCare will lack sufficient funding and have difficulty surviving. While we wish the legislation could be speedily repealed, we would be almost as pleased if it were to die a slow death. And our area Congressmen seem to think that is a strong possibility. After meeting with several of them over the past three weeks, we have come to the conclusion that they are sincerely committed to doing everything possible, short of mass political suicide, to hasten the demise of ObamaCare. We especially thank Congressmen Mike Fitzpatrick, Pat Meehan, Joe Pitts, Chris Smith, Jim Gerlach, and Scott Perry for lending us their ears and providing solid, rationale arguments for their points of view. We also thank Senator Pat Toomey's office for giving us a clearer understanding of the Debt Ceiling strategy. All seven of these Representatives are men of substance and of character, and even when we disagree with them, we should remember that they are thoughtful public servants. And all seven of them hold out the prospect that ObamaCare will eventually die of its own bureaucratic weight--especially after the House begins dismantling it bit by bit. It all starts today. Please call the Capitol Switchboard @ 202.224.3121 or 202.225.3121 and ask to be connected to the office of your Congressman/woman! Ask them to supported [sic] the united House Republican strategy of Defunding and Delaying ObamaCare. DE: John Carney NJ: Rush Holt, Leonard Lance, Frank LoBiondo, John Runyan, Chris Smith.

PA: Bob Brady, Charlie Dent, Chaka Fattah, Mike Fitzpatrick, Jim Gerlach, Pat Meehan, Joe Pitts, Allyson Schwartz. God save our country! On behalf of the PAC Board of Delegates, Don Adams * Group Commends House on ObamaCare Vote; Says Ball in Senate's Court Philadelphia (September 20, 2013) -- The Independence Hall Tea Party, today, commended the US House of Representatives--in particular, regional House Republicans--for their vote, this morning, to defund ObamaCare. The measure to fund the government, except for ObamaCare, passed the House by a 230-189 vote. "We congratulate House Speaker John Boehner for uniting House Republicans," said Association President Teri Adams. "The vote was a victory for all of us who have been fighting to stop socialized medicine. "Republican unity is critical before negotiation with the Democrats begin. "We know the US Senate will probably vote to reject," said Ms. Adams. "But at some point, probably during the Debt Ceiling negotiations, the Senate and the President will have to deal with a united House--and that's when we should be able to delay the individual mandate, rescind the medical device tax, and obtain other concessions." "Today's victory demonstrates that opposition to President Obama's agenda, especially ObamaCare, is alive and well." "Finally, we thank our regional representatives--Congressmen Barletta, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Meehan, Perry, Pitts, Runyan, and Smith." To summarize, the TEA Party Movement has adopted a strong take-no-prisoners stance, and it is still desirable for the Independence Hall Tea Party Association/P.A.C./Foundation to get-with-the-program.