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Floor Speech
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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, it has been 2 weeks since our first vote on a clean continuing resolution to keep the government open. This shutdown could have been avoided well before it began. But because Democrats have not budged from their partisan demands, the shutdown is now entering its third day.
There is a lot that we could be doing right now. We could be considering bipartisan appropriations bills through regular order, going to conference on the three appropriations bills we passed in August, or passing the bipartisan annual Defense bill. But instead, we are stuck in a shutdown mess of Democrats' making, and the American people are suffering as a result.
Republicans remain united around a clean, nonpartisan funding extension. It has passed the House of Representatives, and it is currently sitting right here in the Senate, ready to be voted on. It has no new Republican policies, no partisan policy riders. It is straightforward, simple, and clean.
All it does is reopen the government through November 21 to give us more time to pass appropriations bills here on the floor. We have a number of bipartisan bills waiting for floor consideration right now. The only thing standing in the way of reopening the government and getting back to doing the important work is Democrats' $1.5 trillion in partisan spending demands. That is right, $1.5 trillion.
Their partisan proposal demands more money--think about this--more money than our entire defense budget just to keep the government open for 4 weeks. That is not a credible proposal. It is a far-left wish list, and it is not how we are going to do things around here.
We can end this shutdown in just a few hours. We need to take one rollcall vote--just one rollcall vote--on the House-passed clean continuing resolution. The President of the United States says that he is ready to sign it. We just need a handful of Democrats to agree.
Now, once we get the government back open, then we can talk about the issues that Democrats are raising, but we can't do that while they are holding the Federal Government hostage to their partisan demands.
Whatever Democrats are saying publicly, I think, privately, they are all well aware of the problems with their current position.
The senior Senator from Massachusetts has said:
Hostage tactics are the last resort for those who can't otherwise win their fights through elections, can't win their fights in Congress, can't win their fights for the Presidency, and can't win their fights in the Courts.
The Democrat leader called shutdowns ``a politics of idiocy, of confrontation, of paralysis.''
Mr. President, this shutdown needs to end sooner rather than later, and there is only one way out of it: Democrats need to vote for the clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution sitting right there. All it takes is one rollcall vote--the government is back open. We need to get this government back open, which we can do very, very quickly, and then we can talk about whatever we need to talk about.
Just a few years ago, the Democrat leader had this to say:
We're allowed to come here and disagree over policy. In fact, our system of government was designed to allow for progress despite our large and sometimes raucous differences. But when one side . . . throws a temper tantrum and uses the basic functioning of our government as leverage in a policy argument, our system of government breaks down.
Let's hope the Democrat leader decides to heed his own words and that Democrats' temper tantrum ends sooner rather than later.
Later today, in a couple of hours, Democrats will have another opportunity to vote for the clean continuing resolution, and we will see if they are still committed to their shutdown politics. Republicans remain ready to reopen the government and to get back to doing the American people's business.
How much longer this shutdown lasts depends entirely on Democrats. The choice is theirs.
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