"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."

"Prostitution. Bribery. Blackmail. Thuggery. Hypocrisy. 

"Those were just some of the incendiary words thrown around the U.S. Senate last week, and that doesn’t count what people said in private. 

"The Senate may still have a reputation as a genteel club, but lawmakers seemed to abandon rules of decorum completely last week in arguments about whether Congress should be treated like the rest of the country when it comes to ObamaCare. ...   

"A new poll taken for Independent Women’s Voice, a conservative group, found that 92 percent of voters think Congress shouldn’t be exempted from the insurance provisions of ObamaCare. Most voters blame both parties equally for the exemption, which means Republicans will also be hurt politically if it stands. 'This is an issue with almost unprecedented intensity,' IWV president Heather Higgins told me."

"For its stunning blend of recklessness, fecklessness, callousness, and shamelessness, Benghazi overcomes steep competition to remain the worst of the Obama administration’s collection of scandals. The American people deserve to know what happened and why."

"My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust."

“Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. …  
 
"Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.  … 
 
"Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.”