BREAKING NEWS: John Kennedy Issues Blistering Warning To Democrats With Hours To Go Until Shutdown

BREAKING NEWS: John Kennedy Issues Blistering Warning To Democrats With Hours To Go Until Shutdown

Well, Mr. President, it uh it looks like we’re going to have a shutdown. Um what does that tell us? I’ll tell you what it tells me. It’s uh simply that much more evidence that human evolution is a slow slow process. I I thought humans had advanced more as a species, but apparently we haven’t. What do I mean by a shutdown? Well, we can’t keep government open without a budget. And tonight at midnight, our current budget expires unless we vote to uh to maintain the status quo and continue the current budget as we negotiate a new one. Many of my Democratic friends say, “Well, what’s the problem? The Republicans are in charge. The president’s a Republican and the Republicans have a majority in the Senate and the Republicans have a majority in the House. What’s the problem? They know what the problem is. We can’t pass a budget. We can’t keep government open just with Republican votes here in the Senate. We only have 53 Republicans. We need seven Democrats to join with us. So for my Democratic colleagues to say, “Well, the Republicans are in charge and they don’t need us.” They know that’s not accurate. And that’s what’s going on. Now, we’ve had a few shutdowns before, and every shutdown is different, but most shutdowns are they are a combination of both policy and politics and varying degrees. This shutdown in terms of policy makes absolutely no sense. None. What we have proposed to our Democratic colleagues and the minority leader, Senator Schumer, is to make no changes to the current budget. We just want to continue the current budget and keep government open until just before Thanksgiving to give us more time to negotiate a permanent budget. We did that many times when President Biden was president and when the Democrats had the majority. In fact, we did it 13 times. Not only have Republicans done it, but Democrats have routinely done it. But this time, the Democrats have said, “No, no, no, no, no. We want more.” And you may be thinking, “Okay, that’s reasonable. What do you want?” Well, it’s not reasonable. In effect, what the Democrats are saying to us is that we’re going to close government unless you agree, you Republicans agree to make it bigger. We don’t want the status quo. We want you to commit to spending $1.5 trillion more than you’re spending now. And we, the Democrats are saying, are going to tell you how to spend it. First, they want us to repeal all of the Medicaid reforms that we did in the reconciliation bill. Some call the call it the one big beautiful bill. Uh the one big beautiful bill would not reduce Medicaid. In fact, it would go up about 2% every year as a result of our bill. But it would say to people who are on med medicaid who aren’t eligible for Medicaid that you’re not going to get Medicaid anymore. Dual eligibles, people who sign up in Louisiana and Mississippi, that’s fraud. Under our bill, they would be thrown off. The Democrats want to put back on. Under our changes in the one big beautiful bill that the Democrats want us to reverse, you would have to satisfy certain income levels to be on Medicaid. The law says if you make too much money, you can’t get Medicaid because Medicaid is for the poor. In my state, we have found people through audits making $120,000 a year on Medicaid. So that our bill, which the Democrats want us to repeal after just passing it, would say to those people that if you don’t meet the income limits, if you don’t meet the income limits, you can’t get Medicaid. So that’s that’s the first demand of of the Democrats. Take out all the reforms that we made to Medicaid in the reconciliation bill and throw them out the window. Number two, um they want to extend the Obamacare subsidies. What does that mean? Well, first let me say Obamacare was a mistake and we know that now. When President Obama passed Obamacare, we were told that uh our lives would be better. Our lives have been worse. We were told that it would make health insurance more accessible and more affordable. It’s done neither. Uh on on the the non-medaid part of Obamacare, we’ve got I don’t know 20 25 million Americans who are accessing it. And for the most part about 90% of them are lowincome Americans, but the rest are making huge sums of money. Some are making $160,000 a year getting Obamacare subsidized by taxpayers. And that’s not the way it was supposed to be. How did we get here? Well, it was simple. During the pandemic, when people were being laid off or losing their jobs or couldn’t work, President Biden ran through a bill to to uh uh enlarge the subsidies. He took the cap off the amount that you needed to earn in order to get Obamacare. And those subsidies at the end of this year are about to run out. Now, the de the Republicans have said, “We’ll sit down with our Democratic friends and talk about how to extend them, but we want to reform the program because it’s not right that people making 125, 150, 250, $200,000 a year are getting their health insurance subsidized by the federal government. That’s bone deep down to the mayor stupid.” But the Democrats, Senator Schumer and his colleagues have said, “Nope, we will shut government down unless you agree automatically to extend these subsidies which were passed during the pandemic after the pandemic is over permanently.” And and that’s just some of my colleagues demands. I mean, you need you need you need an Excel spreadsheet to be able to follow their demands. Their demands to keep government open. You you stack them here, you could stand on them and paint the ceiling. And that’s not much of an exaggeration. And and when when Senator Schumer announced these demands, that’s when I knew I knew it in a nancond. we’re going to have a shutdown because my my colleagues, my Democratic colleagues are very smart people and Senator Schumer is a smart person and he knew when he announced these demands that they I could tell he wasn’t serious. He knew they were unserious and he knew that neither the president nor the other members of Congress were going to accept them. And you know what? Many Democrats know they’re unreasonable as well. So that’s why I say the policy part of this makes absolutely no sense. And that’s because this isn’t about policy. This shutdown is about politics. Now parties change just ju just like the the the human experience changes over time. Political parties change, my parties change. So is the Democratic Party. Um and there is a wing of the Democratic Party. I call it the Socialist Wing. Uh some less charitable people call it the lon wing of the Democratic party and they are in charge right now. And the non-lo nonsocialist Democrats are scared to death of them. And this particular wing of the Democratic Party that’s in the ascendancy, what do they believe? They believe they try to outweird each other all the time. They they they hate, if you listen to them, they hate Thomas Jefferson. They hate Abraham Lincoln. They hate George Washington. They hate Dr. Zeus. They hate Mr. Potato Head. They uh they think our kids should be able to change genders back and forth at recess. Kids and and and if it’s their preference should be able to undergo sex change operations while minors paid by you the taxpayers. They believe that they believe in open borders. They they believe that uh if you if you support the law, which says you have to be vetted to come into our country, if you support the law, that’s you’re a racist. I think if you support the law, you’re being prudent. But they believe in open borders. Uh and and my Democratic friends are about to elect a new mayor in uh in uh New York City who is a member of the Lon Wing. He’s a he’s a self-avoued socialist. Um he he he has said if if if the prime minister of Israel comes to New York City, he will have him arrested. But I this is not the majority of Democrats that believe this. I don’t I don’t think that for a second. And I know many of my Democratic co leagues here don’t don’t believe that. But the the moon wing, the socialist wing, the angry Gary Buucy wing of the Democratic party is in ascendancy and they’ve got a lot of power, enormous amount of power. And many of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate are scared of them. And the Lone Wing is mad at many of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate. They shouldn’t be, but they are. And therefore, my many of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate are scared of the Lon Wing and they want the Lon Wing to love them. The Lon Wing will never love them. They’re better off doing the right thing and they know what the right thing to do is. But that’s why I say this is a political decision and that’s why we’re going to shut government down. Now, once you shut government down, unless you’re prepared to leave it shut down permanently, and maybe my Democratic colleagues are, but I don’t think so. I I I still maybe I’m naive, but I I still think too many of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate know better. Once you shut government down, you got to get back open. How are they going to get it back open? We’re not going to agree to their demands. $1.5 trillion dollars. They know we’re not going to agree to it. So, how is my friend Senator Zimmer gonna get government back open? You know, there’s a famous movie line. I don’t remember the movie. I don’t I think I think Denel Washington said the line. I love Denzel Washington. He’s what he’s what cool looks like. Guy’s awesome. Uh he’s he’s a total baller, man. I I love Denel Washington. But anyway, I think he said in one movie, “If you pray for rain, if you pray for rain, you better be prepared to deal with the mud.” And truer words were never spoken. So if you want to shut down, I say to my Democratic friends, you better be prepared to deal with the mud. How you going to get it back open? How you going to get it back open? I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes to have to make this that decision. Let me just say a a few words. I Every time we do a shutdown, it scares the living daylights out of out of the American people, especially our elderly. It breaks my heart. I All of us get phone calls from folks scared to death. They’re not going to get social their social security check or they’re not going to be able to see their doctor and it just breaks my heart. So, I I want to give them a little bit of assurance. Uh during a shutdown, the the executive branch will be in charge and um uh the the Trump administration is not going to do anything to hurt our elderly. I want to to assure them of that. If you’re receiving a social security check or Medicare or Medicaid or veterans disability, your checks are going to continue. We will make sure of that. Trump administration will make sure of that. Government may be shut down, but essential workers will still be there to make sure those checks are sent out. If you if you’re hungry and you don’t have the money to eat, we’re not going to let you starve to death. The administration is going to continue payments. We call it, some people call it SNAP. I call it food stamps. and we will continue the payments for the women women infants and children’s program. Most of us refer that to to WIC. You’ll still get your mail. Don’t worry about that. Postal service will be be working through the shutdown. If you depend for health care on your your veterans administration uh and and VA medical centers, they’re going to remain open. So, I don’t want you to be scared about that. Now, you’re going to notice an impact. Um, probably we’ve got two two and a half million uh federal employees. Probably 750,000 aren’t going to be on the job under the law. They have to go home. So, you will notice an impact. You’ll notice it in our parks. Uh you’ll notice it in our our museums here in Washington if you’re visiting. You’ll notice it in many of the federal agencies. That’s the law. They can’t come to work in a shutdown. Doesn’t matter who initiates the shutdown. Um, you know, we still got a little time. Uh, it’s midnight tonight. We’re going to be taking some some uh some votes here in a few minutes. Give our Democratic colleagues uh one last chance. one last chance to uh to do the right thing and I I I certainly uh I certainly hope they accept with that u Mr. President appreciate your patience and I suggest the absence of a quorum. The clerk will call the role. This is officer Brooks.

On the Senate floor, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) warned Democrats against a government shutdown.

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