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Floor Speech
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, first thing I want to do is thank all the Senators that are speaking tonight.
I can't imagine voting not to pay somebody. In my State, here is what is happening. We have people that are not getting food. At church on Sunday, the pastor asked if we would actually bring in a whole bunch of food because they knew because of what the Democrats are doing, people would not get their food stamps. So all the food banks, they need way more food.
I was talking to a reporter today in Tampa. He said the line is unbelievable at one of the food banks he was at in Tampa today. When I think about these people that are not getting their food stamps, I think of my mom. My mom was a mom of five kids. We lived in public housing. I never met my dad. She had to go to markets and stores and ask for food. She never got food stamps, but she had to go ask for food.
Just think about what is going on around our country. There are people right now worried about if they are going to feed a 2-year-old little kid. Can you just imagine what that mom is doing? I mean, I just can't imagine how anybody ever could vote to shut down the Food Stamp Program to not feed kids.
Let's think about all these people not getting paid. I will give you my experience. When I was 19 years old, I got married. I was E-2 in the Navy, and I was making 332 or 334 bucks a month. That same person today--my wife and I, she was making 75 bucks a week as a legal secretary. So those people, if something like that--I didn't have $25 in the bank. They wouldn't have said: Oh, it is OK not to pay the rent.
Any costs we had, no one would have said: Oh, don't worry. You don't have to pay it now.
That is what is going on with our military. They have mortgages. Their kids have school costs. Their kids want to play sports. They might have medical bills. And my Democratic colleagues are saying they don't care. I mean, did they ever live that life? Have they ever lived a life where they were worried, paycheck to paycheck, how they were going to pay for food, for the rent, for the mortgage? Do you think all the lenders are going to say: ``We know the government is shut down so you don't have to pay your mortgage''?
I just think--I don't know how you could not have a heart to open up government. We can have a policy disagreement every day, and we should. But to not make sure people get their food stamps, not make sure people are showing up today, as Senator Cruz said, trying to keep us safe in the skies or our military that is trying to keep our freedoms, and the Democrats don't care if they get paid or not--just think about it.
Since I got up here--this is my seventh year--I have had a bill that says No Budget, No Pay. The Democrats have blocked it, including yesterday, because they want to get paid, even though they are making the decision that other people don't get a paycheck. They are not willing to give up any of their pay because, as one of them said, he has a mortgage; why would he be expected to give up his pay? Well, they are doing it every day to all the Federal workers. I just can't imagine doing that.
I say to my Democratic colleagues: Open the government. Pay our workers. Make sure people get food, have food on the table. Don't ever, ever, ever in your wildest dreams do that to people in our country. It is wrong to do what you are doing.
Senator Schumer came out and said he had a proposal. It is a joke. It is a complete joke. I will tell you why. Let's think about what they want to do. For us to be able to make sure that we start paying people, they get food stamps, they want to make sure insurance companies continue to get rich. So their proposal doesn't do anything.
Right now, people don't lose their ObamaCare subsidies. It is people that make over 400 percent--that is over probably $128,000, $130,000 a year--get subsidies for their healthcare. You could be a millionaire, you get a subsidy. He wants to make sure millionaires get a subsidy for people possibly to get any food.
He knows Republicans are not going to continue to support a program that pays healthcare for illegals; that is wrong. It has taxpayers paying for abortion; that is wrong. It has taxpayers paying for trans surgery; that is wrong. Making sure--there is supposedly about 4 to 5 million people who don't even know they have these subsidies because it is going directly to an insurance company with no responsibility by a consumer. All you have to do to sign somebody up is know their name, their birth date, their address. Sign them up, and insurance companies get all the money. Why would we ever support something like that?
I want to thank my colleagues. I can't imagine. It is heartless to not make sure people have food. It is heartless to make sure people don't have money if they are working. If the Democrats vote against Senator Johnson's simple bill to pay people that are busting their butt to keep our freedoms, to keep us safe, do all these things--I don't know how you can go home and feel good about what you are doing.
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