Government Funding (Executive Session)

Text in the Record

Government Funding

Mr. President, now, on the shutdown: Well, somehow, Republicans are even in a bigger mess now than when they left Washington 2 weeks ago. It was hard to make things even worse, especially while we were on the July 4 recess, but they did. Donald Trump is the mastermind at making things worse and worse and worse. Just this morning, Donald Trump told ``FOX & Friends":

Republicans have to [terminate the filibuster]. It's so insane. Otherwise, we're gonna have a shutdown in September.

The Trump shutdown--he is bragging about it; he is predicting it. Republicans have to terminate the filibuster, or we will have a shutdown in September, says Donald Trump. So it is clear. It is very clear. I know the Senator from Wyoming talks about Democrats wanting a shutdown. Well, he ought to listen to Donald Trump. He is the one who wants it. It is clear, if we head toward a shutdown in September, it will be Trump who is responsible. He is telling the American people he wants a shutdown. Oh, Donald, do you remember the last time you called for a shutdown, when you challenged Nancy Pelosi and I in the Oval Office and told us you wanted a shutdown? Donald, it didn't work out too well for you then. It won't work out well for you now either. And to all the Republican Senators, including my good friend from Wyoming, who keep insisting that Democrats are hell-bent on shutting down the government, well, they ought to listen to what their own President is saying. Democrats aren't saying we want a shutdown; Trump is. Donald Trump is saying the quiet part out loud. He has no issue with shutting down the Federal Government to force through his radical agenda. If Republicans want to clean up their mess, it will require working with Democrats, not seeing us as partisan foes but as fellow Americans. Instead, what are Republicans doing? They are advancing a lopsided, partisan spending bill that would supersize the budget for Trump's disastrous war with Iran without providing cost relief to working families or reining in Donald Trump's corruption. That is unacceptable. Let's put Republican accusations to rest. Democrats want to fund the government and avoid a shutdown and pass strong, bipartisan appropriations bills that improve people's lives. Democrats believe our budget ought to help families make ends meet. Democrats want a budget that invests in bringing down American costs, not one that burns taxpayer dollars on Donald Trump's reckless war. Republicans have plenty of time to drop their ``my way or the highway'' partisan game. Most Republicans know how ridiculous the SAVE Act is, how unconstitutional it probably is. But Trump is still insisting on it because he thinks it is the only way he can win an election is by fixing it, by eliminating tens of millions of people from the voter rolls. And so he says: Unless I get my way--a little temper tantrum here, Donald--I am going to shut down the government. It is something that the American people can see through in a minute, as they can see through the very unpopular SAVE Act. If Republicans follow Trump over the cliff and insist that the government shut down if they don't get their way, it will be Donald Trump's disaster.

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