EXCERPT:
DICKERSON: Their argument is that you can’t do it all in this, what you are calling bucket one, in the American Health Care Act that Paul Ryan and the president support because the rules of the Senate just will not allow it, and so that you’re — that is what you are up against here.
CRUZ: But that is fundamentally false. The rules of the Senate, we’re on what is called budget reconciliation.
(CROSSTALK)
CRUZ: It is governed by the Budget Act of 1974. It lays out a test for what is permissible on reconciliation, six-part test. The central part of the test is, it is budgetary in nature? If it is budgetary in nature, you can do it. If it’s not, you can’t.
... Under the statute, we can do this now in bucket one. And if we don’t, this bill doesn’t pass. And if it doesn’t pass, it is a substantive and political disaster for everyone involved.