The Huffington Post | By Ashley Alman Posted: 10/10/2013

John McCain Blames Tea Party For Government Shutdown

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blamed tea party Republicans for the government shutdown during a CNN interview on Wednesday, saying Congress never had a shot at defunding Obamacare.

“We started this on a fool’s errand, convincing so many millions of Americans and our supporters that we could defund Obamacare," McCain said.

While McCain didn't name names, he faulted members of Congress -- "tea partiers specifically" -- for wrongly telling "millions of Americans" that Obamacare can be defunded.

That "obviously wouldn’t happen until we had 67 Republican senators to override a presidential veto," McCain said.

McCain denounced the fight to defund Obamacare at the cost of a fiscal impasse even before the govenrment shut down last week. McCain called out Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for his anti-Obamacare speech, and said "the people spoke" when they reelected President Barack Obama in 2012.

"We fought as hard as we could in a fair and honest manner and we lost," McCain said. "One of the reasons was because we were in the minority, and in democracies, almost always the majority governs and passes legislation."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/1...n_4075052.html