Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) “21-hour, 19-minute verbal assault on President Obama’s signature health care law ended Wednesday when the Senate voted 100-to-0 to break off debate and move to consider House legislation that Democrats plan to use to keep the government open next week,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Cruz’s marathon session — which began Tuesday afternoon, went straight through the night and ended at a predetermined noon deadline — did not win over senators from either party, and in fact Mr. Cruz even voted to open debate. After the vote, Senate Mike Lee, Republican of Utah and a Cruz ally, said Mr. Cruz never intended to oppose the motion to take up the bill, a position contradicted by his words and procedural motions for days before the tally.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) greeted the conclusion of Cruz’s speech by declaring it “a big waste of time.”

New York Times: “The Treasury will only have $30 billion of cash on hand by mid-October, putting the United States on the precipice of an unprecedented default… The warning puts additional pressure on a hamstrung Congress, which is already struggling to prevent the federal government from shutting down over a budget impasse on Oct. 1.”

Even as many Republican senators have backed away, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus writes on Red State that he supports Sen. Ted Cruz in his efforts to defund Obamacare.

Wonk Wire: Republicans prepare for Plan B in fiscal showdown.

A new New York Times/CBS News poll finds 8 in 10 Americans find it unacceptable for either President Obama or members of Congress to threaten to shut down the government during budget negotiations in order to achieve their goals. Fewer than 1 in 5 think the stalemate between President Obama and the Republicans in Congress is acceptable.

A new Global Strategy Group (D) poll finds 35% would blame Republicans in Congress for a shutdown, 29% would blame President Obama and another 12% would blame congressional Democrats — a total of 41% blaming either Obama or his Democratic allies in Congress.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), “who took to the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon and declared he would speak ‘until I cannot stand’ was still standing more than 14 hours later as he pressed ahead with his impassioned and often lonely verbal assault on President Obama’s health care law,” the New York Times reports.

“It is a fight he will almost certainly lose later on Wednesday when both Republicans and Democrats are expected to vote overwhelmingly to move ahead so the Senate can begin considering a bill, approved by the House last week, that would fund most of the government but not the Affordable Care Act.”

Washington Post: “Speaking with little assistance from his Republican colleagues, Cruz assured that debate on the spending measure will stretch well into the weekend. With Senate passage all but certain on a bill that will include funding for the health-care law, Cruz’s strategy will give House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and his colleagues only a few hours to respond with a different version of the legislation.”

Philip Klein: “The nation now has more than two and a half years of experience with divided government during the Obama presidency. And each time there has been a major crisis, it’s followed a familiar pattern. The sides are far apart. It looks like the crisis may hit. Then, at the last minute, there’s some sort of deal that’s able to pass the Senate that Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is able to get through the House of Representatives with a lot of help from Democrats.”

Jonathan Cohn: “The conflict over financing government operations–and, weeks from now, raising the debt ceiling–is all about Boehner and his lieutenants waiting until the last possible minute, so that he can extract the biggest concessions from Democrats while telling the conservative base he did the best he could. One way or another, the two sides will come together before the government runs out of money and before it taps out its borrowing authority.”

Wonk Wire: Republican pols fight back on possible shutdown