More Evidence that the U.S. Senate Has Been Replaced by the HAL3000

“This budget bill exemplifies what is wrong with Washington,” Cruz said in a statement. “Nothing is getting fixed. No important reforms are being addressed. The people get little in return except more debt, more taxes, and no change to the Obamacare disaster."

"The Senate majority voted to allow Sen. Reid to ignore all Republican amendments," he continued. "Over and over, this is the roughshod style of leadership that characterizes this Senate and underscores why Washington badly needs to listen to the people.”

Cruz’s point about how Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) did not allow any amendments, including one that would have protected veterans’ pensions, was in reference to how Reid used a procedural trick referred to in D.C. parlance as “filling the amendment tree.”

Reid introduced a series of amendments that would not substantively change the legislation so as to prevent any substantive debate on or amendments to the bill before passage. Technically, under certain Senate rules, only a specific amount of amendments are allowed to be introduced, debated, and voted on. Reid filled out the list and killed any opportunity for real amendments to be considered.