Thune: Americans Deserve Better Than Democrats’ Shutdown Dysfunction
“The American people deserve better than the past month and more … of Democrat-imposed misery.”
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:
Thune’s remarks below (as delivered):
“Mr. President, after 43 days, the longest government shutdown in history is over.
“Shellshocked government employees are getting paid again.
“The air travel situation is improving.
“Nutrition programs are back on a secure footing.
“But the damage remains.
“How many of those government employees now getting paid again are staring at credit card debt taken on to cover necessities during the month and a half they worked without pay?
“Their newly restored salaries don’t contain extra to cover the interest on that debt.
“How many small businesses are struggling thanks to the hit that their business took during the shutdown?
“How long is it going to take to catch up on the 43-day backlog in government services that the shutdown created?
“The pain this shutdown caused was immense.
“And all of it, Mr. President … all of it could have been so easily avoided.
“Republicans offered Democrats a clean, nonpartisan funding extension.
“We did not make a single demand.
“We didn’t ask for a single partisan policy.
“We didn’t add a single partisan policy rider.
“We simply asked Democrats to extend current funding levels for a few weeks so that we could continue bipartisan work on appropriations.
“Instead, Democrats chose to plunge the country into chaos because the far left of their party demanded a showdown with President Trump.
“That’s right, Mr. President.
“All of this pain? All of this profound financial stress? All of this economic damage?
“It’s because the far left demanded a showdown with President Trump.
“And Democrats fell in line.
“Mr. President, it’s disturbing enough that the Democrat Party was willing to shut down the government for 43 days – by far the longest government shutdown in history.
“But what is even more disturbing is the fact that a number of Democrats were prepared to let this shutdown continue even longer.
“Even as lines stretched around the block at food banks and air travel grew ever more precarious, progressive Democrats pushed to embrace the shutdown … forever, as far as I can tell.
“The senior senator from Vermont published an op-ed calling for a continued shutdown and continued opposition to President Trump – even though the president had exactly nothing to do with the clean funding extension that Republicans were proposing.
“And the junior senator from Connecticut spent the last week of the shutdown advocating for continuing it and fretting that ending it would damage Democrats’ ‘brand.’
“That’s right.
“Democrats’ brand.
“Neither senator seemed to spend a minute seriously considering the incredible damage their shutdown was doing to hardworking Americans and to our country.
“Indeed, as we know from their own words, a lot of Democrats saw the pain of working people as leverage for Democrats in this shutdown – a useful tool to be deployed to advance the Democrats’ political goals.
“Mr. President, I am grateful that we finally got eight Democrats to join Republicans to reopen the government – and to spare the American people from further pain.
“But the fact that a month and a half into this shutdown, 39 Democrats still voted to keep the government closed remains deeply disturbing.
“Are Democrats going to continue hamstringing the necessary work of government at the behest of the far left?
“Are their partisan politics going to continue to obstruct the government’s functioning?
“We have a lot of work left to do – starting with the need to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year beyond January 30.
“And there’s a lot more we could accomplish too – from improving our health care system to passing a farm bill.
“But not if the vast majority of the Democrat Party continues to put partisan politics above the wellbeing of the American people.
“I hope Democrats will be content with their record-breaking 43-day shutdown and will now be able to turn back to the business of the American people.
“The American people deserve better than the past month and more … of Democrat-imposed misery.”
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