Show Down Day, Cruz Luz?

House Republican leaders are planning a Friday vote to tie a proposal to defund the Affordable Care Act to a must-past measure aimed at keeping the government funded past Sept. 30. Cruz, a tea party favorite, has been pressing House conservatives to keep the shutdown option on the table in their push on repealing Obamacare, though he infuriated them on Wednesday by conceding that their bill is dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Cruz said he knows some Republicans are worried about the political consequences of forcing a government shutdown, but he pointed out that members of the military and Medicare recipients, for example, were still paid during the 1995 shutdown. During that debacle, the government basically closed for 28 days as President Bill Clinton fought with congressional Republicans over funding for various budget items. Republicans lost eight House seats in the next election.