I don't even remember: why did Cruz shut the government some years back?

[question everything]

I know that Newt did his because he did not get a prize seat on Air Force One after attending former Israeli prime minister Rabin's funeral...

[Downtown Hound]

1. To stop Obamacare.

[question everything]

3. And how did it end?

Obviously Obamacare is still alive.. sort of..

[Downtown Hound]

5. The Republicans eventually caved when they realized

that the American people put the blame on them and Obama did not back down.

[question everything]

6. Thanks. Also, I suppose they never liked Cruz in the first place

Will they now accept Cotton as the one calling the shots?

[samnsara]

2. i thik it was over O'care..

at least we didn't read Dr Seuss

[kydo]

4. So he could make a name for himself by proving he read a book,

Green Eggs and Ham to his kids on the TV.

[grantcart]

7. There was no why, just how.

They wanted to use unanimous consent for a voice vote. He objected because he wanted to force 'moderate Republicans' to have to go on the record and in so doing support for a clean bill collapsed. There was no single issue he just wanted to put Tea Party pressure on the Senate, that is why they hate him so much.

[question everything]

11. No wonder the Repbulicans were in a bind on whom to hate and fear more

Trump or Cruz. I still think that of the two, Trump was the lesser of two evils. He has no ideology, changes his mind with the wind.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Other than killing the ACA, he also wanted to harass the original Cheeto

and egotistically interfere in the proceedings of the House by personally meeting with the teabaggers there to get them to go along with him.

To wit -

Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) panned Ted Cruz as “Lucifer in the flesh” during comments at an event Wednesday night at Stanford University.

“I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone,” Boehner said, according to The Stanford Daily.

“But I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.”

Cruz was a thorn in Boehner's side during several standoffs with the Obama administration, and some of his actions likely cost Boehner support from his own conference.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news-campaigns/john-boehner-ted-cruz-lucifer-in-the-flesh-son-of-a-bitch

[question everything]

12. Scary, really. A pundit yesterday said about Boehner leaving the White House

thinking that he had a deal with Obama and then an aide told him he did not. He could not carry it through the house.

[MoonRiver]

9. Cause Dr. Seuss told him to.

[dalton99a]

10. It was about Ted Cruz

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-cruzs-plan-to-defund-obamacare-failed--and-what-it-achieved/2016/02/16/4e2ce116-c6cb-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html
For Ted Cruz, the 2013 shutdown was a defining moment
By David A. Fahrenthold and Katie Zezima | February 16, 2016

In 2013, freshman Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he had a plan to do something that seemed impossible. He could force President Obama to strip the funding from the landmark health-care law that had come to bear his name — Obamacare — by threatening to shut down the government.

To some other conservatives, there was a problem with Cruz’s plan.

It still seemed impossible.

To succeed, Cruz needed a novel way to outmaneuver the Democrat-led Senate and then pressure Obama to undercut his signature domestic policy achievement.