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Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, few votes in this body are as important as the vote to fund our troops, our military.

Yesterday, right here on this floor, the U.S. Senate--every single Democrat--voted to block that funding. And just 10 minutes ago, the minority leader came to the floor and bragged about the fact that the Democrats had blocked the funding for our military. He stood here and said they are proud of the fact that they are, once again, choosing politics over the security of our Nation.

That is what we're facing here in the U.S. Senate today. We're talking about the National Defense Authorization Act, and this Congress has passed this bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act every year for the past 65 years.

And when it came to the floor of the Senate yesterday, the minority leader said to the Democrats: Say no. Say no to the military.

I am going to go through the list of all the things they said no to yesterday. This year should be no different than the other years--65 years in a row.

This year's Defense bill gives our military every tool it needs to keep us, as Americans, safe. It invests in peace through strength at home and abroad. Importantly, this bill provides a pay raise for the men and women who defend our Nation.

Every single Democrat in this Chamber joined Senator Schumer, joined Bernie Sanders, and joined Elizabeth Warren and said: No, we are not voting for it. We are not voting for it.

That is what they said. They refused to allow the debate to even begin. This was before the bill even started the debate here on the floor of the Senate. And it is interesting because many of them flip- flopped. What do I mean by that? It means that, first, many of them voted for the bill in the committee in order to send it to the floor. Then it gets to the floor, and what happens? All of them vote to block it from even beginning the debate. Apparently, Democrats were for it before they were against it.

Here is what Democrats voted against: They voted against higher pay for our troops. They voted against better healthcare for our service members and their families. Democrats voted against better housing for our troops. Democrats voted against stronger deterrence. Democrats voted against a more lethal military. Democrats voted against a larger, stronger Navy.

Democrats even voted against a modern nuclear deterrent. Don't we want to deter nuclear war? This is at a time when nuclear weapons are proliferating all around the world. In my home State of Wyoming, we have F.E. Warren Air Force Base. The airmen who serve there are the lynchpin of our land-based nuclear force. The deterrence there has been known over the decades as our Nation's ``ace in the hole.'' That is how it works--the desire to protect us as a nation.

Democrats voted against all of it. They actually even voted against expanding our military recruitment effort. They don't want us to be able to recruit for the military, and they don't want the military to be properly funded and equipped in a way that protects us as a nation.

Democrats actually even voted against more savings for taxpayers. Democrats voted against protecting women's sports at our military schools. No, they don't want any of that. Democrats voted against promotions based on merit and merit alone: Oh, no. You have merited and earned a promotion? No, you are not getting it on merit alone.

That is who the Democrats have become. That is the threat to our Nation--this far-leftist group that is telling the Democrats here on the floor of the Senate what to do. And for things that had been bipartisan in the past, they said: No, we can't do that anymore.

This far-left wing of the party is telling us what to do and how to march in step.

Democrats voted against ending harmful DEI mandates. They voted against stronger border security. They like open borders. They don't want border security. They voted against funding to combat against the cartels that are moving poison into the country--killing young people in record numbers. Democrats voted against stopping the flood of deadly drugs and illegal border crossings.

Just 2 days ago, right here on the Senate floor, the Senator from Maryland, Senator Chris Van Hollen, said this: Missile defense--to defend against incoming missiles for the American people--was wasteful spending.

It is remarkable. Defending the country is wasteful spending. That is who the Democrats have become.

The Democrats act like pennypinchers when it comes to paying our troops to protect our homeland; yet, they accept the astronomical cost of the waste, the fraud, and the abuse--free healthcare for illegal immigrants, the fraud that is happening like we are seeing in Minnesota, and all of those things. The Democrats are for all of that, but they are not for our troops, and they are not for defending our Nation. That is the Democrat Party of today.

The Democrats of today are radical; they are extreme; they are dangerous; they are scary. Well, the world is a dangerous place, and by voting against the National Defense Authorization Act, the Democrats are disrespecting the American troops; they are undermining American security; and Democrats are jeopardizing America's strength.

Look, our friend Lindsey Graham believed in peace through strength. I do, as well as do most Americans--but not the Democrat Party of today. It is time for us to act on that belief: that America is best when we are strong and it helps make us more safe. It is time for the Senate to pass a bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act, and it is time for Democrats to act like Americans.

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