"It's shutdown morning in Washington. Here's where we stand:  

"The Senate is scheduled to come back today at 2:00 p.m. At that point, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated, the Senate will reject the continuing resolution to fund the government passed by the House on Sunday morning. That resolution would delay ObamaCare for one year and repeal the medical-device tax. If no measure to fund the government is agreed to by the House and Senate by tonight, the government will shut down."

"Americans don’t want a dignified surrender on ObamaCare. They want someone to drive a stake through ObamaCare. ...  
 
"Two weeks ago, a brave Congress, listening to America, stood up and told Obama: Your red lines be damned; we’re not voting for war on Syria.

"Now House Republicans need to tell the country: Come hell or high water, we’re not voting to fund ObamaCare. We will pass a CR on everything else in the budget, but ObamaCare is not coming out of this House alive."

"[I]nstead of attacking ObamaCare and the breathtaking hypocrisy of the Democrats over this massively unpopular law, far too many Republicans have been spending their time attacking Ted Cruz. (Why didn't we see one-tenth as much venom directed at Sen. Marco Rubio for trying to give the Democrats 30 million new voters with amnesty as we have toward Cruz for trying to defund ObamaCare?)  

"For every minute you spend attacking Cruz on TV, Republicans, could you consider spending two minutes attacking ObamaCare?  ... 

"Whether or not Cruz succeeds, we wouldn't be talking about ObamaCare this week without his efforts to defund it -- at least those of us who are talking about this disastrous law, rather than attacking Cruz."

"Like an estimated 22 million other Americans, I am a self-employed small-business owner who buys health insurance for my family directly on the individual market. We have a high-deductible PPO plan that allows us to choose from a wide range of doctors. 

"Or rather, we had such a plan. 

"Last week, our family received notice from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado that we can no longer keep the plan we like because of 'changes from health care reform (also called the Affordable Care Act or ACA).'  The letter informed us that 'to meet the requirements of the new laws, your current plan can no longer be continued beyond your 2014 renewal date.' 

"In short: Obama lied. My health plan died."

"Changing the outcome in the Senate may be unlikely, but what is far from certain is that the GOP will be damaged, on balance, if a shutdown occurs because Obama insists on preserving Obamacare at all costs. Though no one on either side knows for sure, I think that fighting a defunding battle, even if Republicans lose, will greatly enhance, rather than diminish, the GOP's prospects in 2014 and 2016.  

"The pragmatists always seem so fatalistic and defeatist in these battles, surrendering before we even begin the fight. But there is no telling how many millions of Americans have become wholly disillusioned by the GOP's reluctance to fight Obama and to offer an inspiring alternative agenda. These people -- millions, armed in the holy cause of liberty -- are craving leadership from Republicans who understand the gravity of our current path, and they will rally around it in surprising numbers if Republicans provide it."

"Americans are speaking loud and clear. They don’t want to lose their health plans and be forced into ObamaCare exchanges, keep their businesses small to avoid the law’s penalties, and let bureaucrats and politicians in Washington make their health care decisions. Let’s listen. 

"They deserve a win. I intend to use every tool available to me to defund ObamaCare, and am encouraged by the thousands of phone calls, tweets, and emails that come to my office each day. 

"Republicans have the momentum. Conservatives defeated the president’s gun control measures to deprive Second Amendment rights from law-abiding Americans. We pushed back on his reckless drone policy. We convinced him to seek congressional approval on military action in Syria. 

"Now, we’re poised to win our biggest victory for the American people yet: defunding ObamaCare. All we have to do is have the will to fight."

"Grassroots pressure from conservatives has induced the House Republican leadership to permit a vote on a continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare. That is excellent news.

"For spearheading the move to defund the (Not Remotely) Affordable Care Act, intrepid Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have been scalded by the usual ruling class crowd of GOP establishment leaders and Obama administration officials. Yet public resistance to a law the public has never liked – and about which the public grows increasingly anxious as its deleterious consequences and exploding costs begin to materialize – has forced leadership’s hand even as it demonstrates, yet again, the divide between the Beltway and the country. ... 

"What conservative proponents of defunding are seeking is not a repeal. Conservatives seek merely to do what Obama is already doing: defund the law … except conservatives would defund within constitutional norms. This would be a refusal to fund a law accomplished by the branch of government responsible for spending and lawmaking, not by an imperial president who has usurped lawmaking power and would coerce spending in accordance with his political whims, not equal protection of law for all Americans.

"That is an argument conservatives can win, shutdown or no shutdown."

"The Navy Yard massacre won’t revive the gun debate in Congress for a simple reason. There is no gun control agenda this side of a total ban and confiscation that would have stopped Aaron Alexis. 

"The Toomey-Manchin bill could have passed Congress unanimously. The assault weapons ban could still be in place. Gun-controllers could have achieved their long-ago goal of barring the private purchase of handguns. And every step of his mayhem at the Washington Navy Yard would have been unimpeded."

"President Barack Obama says that he is less concerned with scoring 'style points' for his improvisational handling of the Syria crisis than in 'getting the policy right.' This dismissive defense comes at the precise moment that Washington is awash in brutal critiques of the Obama leadership style. 

"The president’s harried, serial about-faces on Syria — coupled with the collapse of Larry Summer’s candidacy for chairmanship of the Federal Reserve — have combined to highlight some enduring limitations of Obama’s approach to decision-making, public persuasion and political management. 

"Across the capital, anxious friends and chortling enemies alike are asking: What’s wrong with Obama?"

"Political crusades for raising the minimum wage are back again. Advocates of minimum wage laws often give themselves credit for being more 'compassionate' towards 'the poor.' But they seldom bother to check what are the actual consequences of such laws. 

"One of the simplest and most fundamental economic principles is that people tend to buy more when the price is lower and less when the price is higher. Yet advocates of minimum wage laws seem to think that the government can raise the price of labor without reducing the amount of labor that will be hired. 

"When you turn from economic principles to hard facts, the case against minimum wage laws is even stronger. 

"Countries with minimum wage laws almost invariably have higher rates of unemployment than countries without minimum wage laws."