Floor Statements

I move to proceed to the motion to reconsider the vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 2882.

I move to reconsider the vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 2882.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 167, S. 2882.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

I withdraw my motion to proceed.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, today is October 1, the first full day of Donald Trump's government shutdown. Donald Trump and Republicans have barreled us into a shutdown because they refuse to protect Americans' healthcare.

It is clear that the way out of this shutdown is to sit down and negotiate with Democrats, to address the looming healthcare crisis that faces tens of millions of American families. Democrats want to avert this crisis, but Republicans tried to bully us, and it is clear they can't. They don't have the votes. The way out of this is for Republicans to finally roll up their sleeves and get to work. Republicans need to get serious and start actually addressing the looming crisis and reopen the government.

Now, why has all of this happened? Why are we here on October 1? Because Republicans have tried to stick us with a partisan CR that fails to protect Americans' healthcare and does nothing--nothing--to fix the healthcare mess that they created. It has now failed twice to get enough votes in this Chamber. So Republicans need to negotiate with us, and Speaker Johnson has to get his people here. If anyone wanted evidence as to who wanted this shutdown, just look at the fact that Johnson does not even have the House in session.

When Democrats had the White House, the Senate, and the House, when Democrats had the majority in this Chamber, when I was majority leader, we never had one shutdown in 4 years--not one. Do you know why? Because we worked with our Republican colleagues to find a way to keep the government funded. We did this 13 times, as Leader Thune likes to remind everyone. That is a lot of bipartisan negotiation--but not this time, not so today. Republicans need to negotiate.

Today is October 1, and that means something else is happening today. Americans throughout the country are opening their mailboxes and finding letters in there telling them that their health insurance is about to go way, way, way up. The other day, we thought it was about $400 a month that the average American family would pay more in insurance premiums, but it turns out it is even worse than that. The Kaiser report--the nonpartisan, well-respected Kaiser report--from yesterday, says it is an average of $1,000 a month and, God forbid, even much more for so many Americans. Healthcare premiums, because of what the Republicans have done, are going up 114 percent a year, on average. The average premium is going to more than double.

What is the average American family supposed to do with that? What happens on Friday night when the family sits around the kitchen table and says, ``How are we going to pay the bills?'' when they see that their insurance could be $1,000 more a month--health insurance, vital to the parents and to the children of the family. What are they going to do? The average American can't afford $1,000 a month or even $400 a month without cutting back on their healthcare or cutting back on something else that is vital.

You know, Americans are saying the No. 1 issue is cost. They now rate Donald Trump worse on costs than they rated Joe Biden, and he didn't have very good ratings. It is the tariffs. It is the change in electricity costs because of what they have done with the cheapest and cleanest source of energy putting electrons on the grid, which is solar. They got rid of it, in their fanatical hatred of clean energy. Now, they are putting money into coal. It is incredible--because of the costs of groceries, of meat.

But the No. 1 increase in cost now, on October 1, is healthcare costs. And the average American is going to say: What the heck happened here? And we Democrats are going to be there every day, every hour-- Senate, House, groups that care about healthcare: hospital groups, healthcare groups, research groups--letting them know this didn't have to happen. It happened because our Republican colleagues wanted to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut their healthcare. It is incredible. It is incredible.

Three times we asked our Republican colleagues to extend the ACA tax credit. Three times they voted no. Well, it is not too late. They could change. When I met with the President, he seemed not to know the magnitude of the crisis. He said: Ooh, this is going to hurt me.

Well, it sure will. But it is going to hurt every American.

What is motivating Democrats--what is motivating me--is simply to take this burden off the shoulders of tens of millions of American families who struggle each week to pay the bills, and they don't need this huge increase in something as vital as health insurance.

And the Republicans sort of know this. So what do they do? They make up lies, absolute lies. They say, oh, what they are fighting to do is prevent--they say--illegal immigrants from getting Federal healthcare dollars.

That is a damn lie. Not one dollar of Medicare, Medicaid, or ACA is allowed to go to undocumented immigrants--not a dollar.

So why do they keep saying this? This seems to be their theme. Because they are afraid to talk about the real issues. Typical Republican response: Have a diversion; try to scare people emotionally.

But I will tell you, to the average American family, that $1,000-a- month increase or that $400-a-month increase on their healthcare bills means a lot more than political crap put in the air--lies--by our Republican colleagues.

So I was very glad this morning that some of the commentators on TV said that. When they say that undocumented immigrants are going to get this money, it is a lie, plain and simple. It is a lie so lazy and so outlandish that it is easy to rebut. But again, let me be clear: Undocumented people cannot and will not receive premium tax credit by law. The Federal Government does not fund Federal health insurance for undocumented immigrants in Medicaid or Medicare--period, full stop.

So they don't care. Why? Because they know the American people are on our side, and they know they are going to get angrier and angrier starting today, when they see these healthcare bills.

Listen to this poll. The Kaiser Family Foundation poll found a whopping 75 percent of Americans support extending the ACA premium tax credit, including 63 percent of Republicans. When our Republican Senate and House colleagues go around their communities--of course, the House isn't even here this week, as I mentioned--they are going to hear it in the barbershops and in the restaurants and at the diners and at the Little Leagues and at the veterans halls, because it is so shocking, and people are going to be talking about it. They will see.

And we Democrats are going to be there relentlessly, letting people know why it happened: because our Republican colleagues did not want to help us out of this crisis. Instead, they wanted to give the dollars to billionaires.

President Trump calls what the Democrats want radical.

President Trump, it is not radical to say Americans deserve lower healthcare premiums. It is not radical to say we want to prevent the average American family from getting these huge increases--those on ACA--$1,000 a month.

When Democrats say we want to work with Republicans to lower premiums, to strengthen healthcare, all we are doing is reflecting what the American people already want--nothing more, nothing less. They want us to sit down and negotiate something real that takes this huge, huge burden off their shoulders.

And Donald Trump, instead of acting like an adult--he is the most immature President we have ever had--instead of doing something to stop the healthcare crisis, is threatening to hurt countless hard-working Americans.

Let me repeat the quote Donald Trump said yesterday:

We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible,

that are bad for them and irreversible. Like cutting vast

numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting

programs that they like.

Donald Trump says it loud and clear; that is one thing about him. He is using the American people as pawns, threatening pain on the country as blackmail.

Well, that is not going to work. For the American people, it is so easy to see through those tactics. They know this is the Trump shutdown. They know Republicans control the Presidency, the Senate, and the House and what is done during a shutdown will fall squarely on Republicans' backs. Donald Trump even says it. He says he is going to close down all these things people want.

It is going to fall right on his back. The American people will know who is doing it, and he is going to have to recoil from it--just as they have done so many cuts already, even before October 1. And they had to back off on many of them, some because of the courts but some because of public outcry, such as the huge cutbacks they made in the

Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 2882.

Mr. President, I thank the leader for letting me borrow his chart for a minute.

So he has pointed to each of these bar graphs, the percentage of Democratic Senators who supported Biden-era CRs.

Yes. That is true. Guess why. In each case, Democrats negotiated with Republicans and said: Let's have a bipartisan bill.

The leader says: It is a clean bill.

It is a partisan bill. Not once were Democrats asked for what input should be in the bill. We were not told about it, we were not asked about it, et cetera; nor did Speaker Johnson talk to Hakeem Jeffries.

You cannot pass legislation in the Senate when it comes to appropriations unless it is bipartisan.

So the leader will say it is clean. No, it is not clean because there was no discussion. Every one of these times, I went to the Republican leader and said: What do you need? What do you want?

In many cases, we had to significantly change the bill. One of our bills had aid to Ukraine. The Republicans didn't want it. To avoid shutting down the government, we talked to them, negotiated, and took it out. But not once--not once--was there any bipartisan discussion or talk on this bill.

We wanted to give our Republican colleagues a chance. That is why some of us back in March said OK. But we saw what happened after that. We saw a decimation of healthcare in the BBB--so bad right now that 80 percent of Americans support renewing the tax

credits of the ACA. We saw them use rescissions, pocket rescissions, impoundments, to undo what was done in the legislative process.

So the world has changed, and one way it has changed--and there are several, and I will get to those--one way it has changed is there was no discussion. And we asked to have meetings. Hakeem Jeffries and I asked the leader and the Speaker to sit down with us as early as July. They didn't.

The job of a leader--

--is a bipartisan negotiation. And the appropriators, which he will say are discussing things--but the two issues we care about--

The two issues we care about: extending the ACA credits--broadly popular with the American people, so they don't want to talk about it; they want to change the subject--and ending these rescissions and impoundments that would undo what we would do--the four appropriators, when they got down and discussed it, they said: That should be for the four leaders to discuss.

That is what Thune said. That is--sorry. That is what Cole said, the Republican head of Appropriations in the House. That is what Collins said. That is what Murray said. That is what DeLauro said. They did not discuss it with us at all.

So to say the appropriations process is working is wrong. It is not working. It is not working because the leaders wouldn't discuss it with us, as we discussed with Republicans on every single one of these what should be in the bill and on the bill.

Please.

Would the speaker yield? Would the leader yield?

It was not. It was not an entirely different issue.

Thank you.

Now reclaiming my time--

They did not agree to the bills that the leader is talking about because they said explicitly--Democrat and Republican-- there are two issues they can't resolve: impoundments and rescissions and ACA tax credits and healthcare. And they all agreed, the four of them, that they couldn't agree to a bill until the leaders discussed it with us.

We asked the leaders to discuss it with us in July, in the middle of August, at the end of August and September. They refused. And now he says: Give us another 45 days.

Well, frankly, the Republicans have had 45 days since March--one 45 days, another 45 days, another 45 days. And in the room yesterday, Johnson said he doesn't want to do it at all; he doesn't want to have any compromise.

So the time to do it is now, and the idea that we can do it until January--when we talked to the President yesterday, he didn't understand this, but I know that the leader does. On October 1, in a day or two, millions of Americans--millions--are going to get notices that their insurance premiums will rise an average of $400 a month, $5,000 a year. A middle-class family can't afford that.

We want to renew those credits--among other things in healthcare--but renew those credits so that people won't pay that horrible increase. You can debate healthcare all you want, but the overwhelming majority of Americans--Democrat, Independent, and even a good number of Republicans--want us--want us--to renew those credits.

The impoundment, rescission--I mean, what does the leader think? That we should go along, come to an agreement, and then let them undo it unilaterally as they have done once and now have asked to do it more? No way. That is not how you deal with this. And we never had another President who did it.

So I repeat--I love this chart--Democrats negotiated with Republicans, Democrats negotiated with Republicans, Democrats negotiated with Republicans, and on through the whole chart. Didn't happen this time. Leader Thune did not come once to me and say: Is this bill acceptable? What do you want in the bill?

So they call it clean; we call it extremely partisan--not one discussion, House or Senate, between the two leaders. That is not how you negotiate, and that is not how you pass appropriations bills.

The Appropriations Committee is stalled, by their own admission, because the leader will not come and talk to us about it.

Now let me make a few other points. Republicans are heading us into a shutdown. We stand at the precipice of a government shutdown because Republicans are not serious about keeping the government open.

If you want one glaring instance of that, Speaker Johnson sent his people home. They are home right now even though the government will conclude at midnight. There is only one conclusion you can draw when the Speaker sends the House home: that he wants a shutdown, he doesn't want to negotiate. All they want to do is force us, try to bully us-- they are not going to succeed--into taking their partisan bill. Take it or leave it. That is not how this place works. And that is why we are headed into a shutdown--because Republicans refuse to negotiate a bipartisan bill that deals with the healthcare needs of the American people, which they care about.

Yesterday, Leader Jeffries and I went to the White House to meet with the President and Republican leaders about finding a way out of this impasse. It was a frank and candid discussion. It was long overdue. As I said, we had asked for it for months.

We asked the President to meet with us when Thune and Johnson wouldn't. He said yes. And according to all reports, Johnson and then Leader Thune, who just followed what Johnson wanted, said ``Don't do it,'' and the President withdrew.

So on Friday, I called Leader Thune and said, ``Let's have a meeting,'' and we did, but it is at the last minute.

There is still a chance. It is only the President who can do this. We know he runs the show here, and he has got to say to our Republican colleagues: Deal with this ACA issue so that people don't get $400 premium increases; deal with this impoundment and rescission issue-- which, when we told him about it yesterday, he seemed not familiar with it, but now he knows--and we can solve this problem.

But Johnson won't. Thune won't. And so the President is not going to be able to persuade them unless he tries at the last minute. That is the only hope here.

Look, sitting in the room with the President, it was very clear that the President hadn't fully grasped the magnitude of the disaster he is causing when the government shuts down.

As healthcare costs go up, as people lose their healthcare--rural hospitals are already closing.

Speaker Johnson, in the room, said to me: They are not.

I pointed out to him that Tim Kaine just informed us that three rural clinics in Virginia, southwest Virginia, were closing, and the head of those clinics said it is because of the bills that the Republicans passed, the so-called BBB, which we know is not beautiful. The American people know it is not beautiful.

So they know--our Republican colleagues know that the American people are fully behind us when it comes to lowering costs but also--also-- when it comes to healthcare and making sure those premiums don't go way up.

Then I spoke to Speaker Johnson directly in the room. I told him, because he can't debate healthcare because he knows it is not--the American people are not on the side of wanting these increases--even Republicans--I told him to stop making up stories, that too many Republicans are lying through their teeth. They say: Oh, the Democrats want undocumented immigrants to get healthcare, to get the Federal dollars of healthcare.

That is utter bull, and they know it. The law--the law--prohibits undocumented immigrants from getting payments from Medicare, Medicaid, or the ACA. There is no money, not a penny of Federal dollars, that is going there. So why do they bring this up? Because they are afraid to talk about the real issue, which is healthcare for American citizens, healthcare for people who need the healthcare and can't afford these premiums.

Let me say it again. Undocumented immigrants cannot receive premium tax credits by law. So they should stop these lies and address the real issue which, of course, they are afraid to do. A standard Republican MO--a standard Republican MO--is to make something else up because the American people are on our side.

Now, this week, here is what House Republicans sent out as guidance to their Members. They said ``not to make the message about healthcare because Republicans lose that argument.'' They are right. Their position is callous, malicious, unpopular.

So they are not only refusing to talk about healthcare, but apparently when they do, it is only to spread misinformation, to spread lies.

I said this to Speaker Johnson in the Oval Office yesterday. I told him it was total bull--I think that is the word I used--to say that we want undocumented immigrants to get Federal benefits, that it can't happen by law and nothing we proposed in our bill changes that. He sort of smirked. That is it--because he knows the truth. He knows the truth. And they are lying to the American people, these Republicans who use this, because they know how unpopular their position is.

Kaiser Family Foundation poll: 75 percent of Americans support extending the ACA premium tax credits, including 63 percent of Republicans.

Republicans have chosen the losing side of the healthcare debate because they are trying to take away people's healthcare. They are going to let people's premiums rise. And this idea that we can do this in January--no. The notices go out October 1 as to how much of an increase people will get in 29 States, and they only have a short time--long before January--to decide, are they going to drop their healthcare because they can't afford it? Are they going to take a lesser plan where they pay more through deductibles and copayments or are they going to keep that plan and cut back on buying a car, going on a vacation, or worse?

Simply put, folks, the Republicans have chosen the losing side of the healthcare debate--the losing side. And in the White House meeting yesterday, Speaker Johnson made it perfectly clear he didn't care if people's premiums go up because his conference is against it.

So, again, the House isn't even set to come back until October 7. You tell me which side is actively manufacturing a shutdown. Why did the House do that? Because they want to negotiate? I don't think so. They wanted to jam it through, but they are not going to be able to.

Yesterday, during a House Republican conference, Representative Lisa McClain made it explicit. She said ``Don't talk about healthcare'' to her Republican colleagues. They don't want to talk about it, so they make these other things up, facts out of thin air.

So the Republicans have until midnight tonight to get serious with us about solving this crisis and keep the government open, but right now, they are not even talking to us seriously. They are sort of in la-la land.

On another related issue, yesterday, the President posted an offensive deepfake AI video of Leader Jeffries and me with sombreros, fake music, impersonating my voice through AI--it wasn't me talking-- with even more lies about healthcare and immigration.

Listen to this, America, hours away from a shutdown--which we don't want, the American people don't want--the President is busy trolling away on the internet like a 10-year-old. And that is exactly why Americans are going to blame him if the government shuts down. That is another proof point as to who is to blame--his video, Johnson going away and adjourning the House until next week.

We have less than a day to figure this out, and Donald Trump is busy tweeting deepfakes. It is not like he is in touch with reality; he is in a bubble. He doesn't understand if government shuts down, people with healthcare premiums will go up. When we told him about it in our meeting yesterday, by his body language, he seemed not to be aware of the ramifications. If the President was smart, he would move Heaven and Earth to fix this healthcare crisis right away because Americans are going to hold him responsible when they start paying $400, $500, $4,600 more a month on healthcare.

We have less than a day. If there was ever a moment for Donald Trump and Republicans to get serious about healthcare, it is now. Even right now, even this morning, even here on the precipice of this crisis, the President would rather troll on the internet and lie about healthcare than tell the truth and get to work.

That is why the polls are abundantly clear that Americans will hold Donald Trump and Republicans responsible if the government shuts down. Senate Republicans could stop this crisis now. The President should get on the phone with Leaders Thune and Johnson and tell them to work with Democrats to fix the crisis before it is too late and work with Democrats to fix our healthcare crisis.

Let me just say, once again, we tried over and over and over again to meet with the Republican leadership, and they said no. Appropriators said they couldn't resolve the issues until the leaders met. So we asked the leaders to meet again, and they said no because they didn't want to negotiate. They wanted it their way or no way--their way or no way. That is not how the Senate works.

If Republicans cause a shutdown, they will probably keep lying and distracting because they know we are on the side--Democrats are on the side--of the American people. We will continue to focus on healthcare. The American people will be completely on our side.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to the motion to reconsider the vote on passage of S. 2882.

Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote on passage of S. 2882.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, in a few minutes, the Senate is going to vote on the Republican partisan, status quo bill--partisan, status quo bill. The Republican CR was the wrong option for America a week ago. It remains the wrong option today because it does nothing--absolutely nothing--to solve the biggest healthcare crisis in America.

As we speak, tens of millions of Americans are getting letters in the mail informing them that their healthcare premiums are about to shoot up by an average of 114 percent. For a working-class family that needs healthcare, this is a huge increase. It is going to dramatically hurt them. And our Republican colleagues want to do nothing about it.

Four million people are about to lose coverage, and 24 million people will see their healthcare costs go up. And even if you don't have ACA, the insurers are going to raise rates on you because they are getting so much less money because of all the cuts my colleagues made.

This is a crisis.

Now I know the leader is going to show a poll that says that Democrats will be blamed for the shutdown. There are many more polls that show Republicans are blamed. The question in that poll is biased-- biased--in the New York Times, but it is biased.

That is true. I don't always believe the New York Times; you can be sure of that. Neither do you. OK?

But in any case, here is a poll from Morning Consult today: 75 percent of Americans support extending the tax premium credits; 63 percent of Republicans support it. Forty-five percent of voters say they will blame Republicans in Congress for a government shutdown, and only 32 percent blame Democrats.

It is natural that people understand that Donald Trump and the Republicans want a shutdown and Democrats do not.

We need to deal with this healthcare crisis now, not later, but the Republican bill fails to do that. I urge my Republican colleagues instead to join with us and work in good faith to keep the government open, keep costs down.

This is a totally partisan bill. Not once were we approached about what our input should be. When I was majority leader, 13 different times, we passed CRs. Why? Because every single one of those 13 times we negotiated with Republicans to keep the government open. We still want to have those negotiations today.

Democrats remain ready to get to work to negotiate a bipartisan agreement--a truly bipartisan agreement--to keep the government open, but we need to fix our healthcare system now. We need to stop premiums from going up dramatically. We need to be on the side of the American people because they are on our side in terms of getting this healthcare crisis fixed--one created by the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which they now want to change the name of because they know it is so unpopular. In fact, Republican leaders are saying ``Don't talk about healthcare'' because they know that we are on their side and Republicans are not.

The issue can't wait. It must be dealt with now, not November, when it will be too late. The Republican CR is silent on healthcare and the wrong option for the country. It is as simple as that.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

I move to proceed to Calendar No. 167, S. 2882.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

I withdraw the motion to proceed.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, today, all of America can see the glaring contrast between Republican and Democratic priorities, as shown by the bills each party introduced late yesterday.

Senators will have to choose to stand with Donald Trump and keep the same lousy status quo and cause the Trump healthcare shutdown or stand with the American people, protect their healthcare, and keep the government functioning.

Today, we have a rare moment in the Senate where two bills come to the floor that truly crystallize the contrast between the two parties.

On the Republican side, Americans will see more of the same high costs, especially on healthcare, more of the same failures of the last 9 months or, instead, Republicans can vote to undo the destruction Donald Trump has inflicted on American healthcare and instead work on a bipartisan bill--the only bipartisan bill that can win--to keep the government open. That is what Democrats offer the American people. The choice is clear.

Our Republican colleagues seem to think Americans are happy with the direction of this country. They are voting like they think the status quo is good enough even though they have heard from so many of their constituents about the fear of hospitals closing, of healthcare being diminished, of premiums going way up, hundreds of dollars each month. They have heard that from their constituents, but they stick with Donald Trump, who doesn't give a hoot about them.

Republicans are voting like the status quo is good enough. They are wrong. Americans are tired of the status quo. They are tired of Donald Trump's chaos and inflationary policies.

By not even negotiating, by trying to make this partisan, Donald Trump and Republicans are shutting the government down.

People are paying more for groceries, more for their electric bills, more for rent. Even a cup of coffee every morning has gotten more expensive under Donald Trump.

Healthcare in America has been plunged into crisis. Fifteen million Americans will lose their healthcare. Premiums are set to go through the roof--hundreds of dollars each month, thousands of dollars each year. The American family--average family--can't afford that.

Republicans--what do they say? Well, let's kick the can down the road. Republicans say: Let's put it off. Let's do it later. But for Republicans, ``later'' means ``never.''

We should solve this healthcare crisis now. People are already getting letters in the mail saying their premiums are about to go up next year by $300, $400, $500--God forbid, even more.

A new report today showed that if we extend these tax credits, the vast majority of the benefits will go to the working- and middle-class families--the families who need help. That is what Democrats want to do here today.

Also, hospitals from Virginia to Nebraska, from Maine to California, are shutting down right now--not next

year; now. You know what that means. If you live in rural America, the closest hospital to you might be hundreds of miles away. You might not be able to see a doctor. Even if you can, you are going to pay more to see the doctor.

If you are an adult with parents who live in a nursing home, what is going to happen if that nursing home closes due to budget cuts? Hundreds--hundreds--of nursing homes will close because they depend on Medicaid, which has been slashed. Most people, most average families, can't afford to take their parents in, and there is no way they could provide the same care and expertise that a nursing home could.

I have talked to long-term care centers--in Republican districts no less--where doctors and nurses and healthcare workers and parents are frustrated or worried--worried their jobs are imperiled and worried even more that their patients are imperiled. They cannot understand how Donald Trump and Republicans are so OK with cutting their funding. In short, it is a betrayal. That is what the status quo looks like under Donald Trump.

Also, let me speak to my own colleagues here in the Senate who care about this institution and who, in normal times, would love to work together with the other side to make good things happen for the country. Donald Trump and his little minion Russell Vought have made a total mockery of the congressional appropriations process. He has trampled over Congress's power of the purse. He has illegally frozen, canceled, and redirected--unilaterally misappropriated--hundreds of billions in funding.

Why the heck should the Senate vote on a budget if Russell Vought singlehandedly, with Donald Trump's support, can undo it all? And that includes NIH research. It includes public broadcasting and so much else. It is all illegal. It cannot be tolerated. Why pass a budget if Russell Vought can unilaterally rescind it? Every Senator should not stand for it, including our Republican colleagues. Democrats will certainly not stand for it. Will Republicans?

Republicans cannot expect that another take-it-or-leave-it extension of government funding that fails to address healthcare costs is going to cut it for the American people. What we should do instead is move forward with our Democratic proposal to work to keep the government open, to lower people's premiums, to protect people's healthcare.

Finally, both sides should at least talk. Donald Trump does not want to talk. He has said to Republicans: ``Don't even bother'' to deal with Democrats. That is Donald Trump saying he--he--wants a shutdown.

You have to have two parties to pass a bill. If you say ``Don't deal with Democrats,'' you are saying you want a shutdown. That is what Trump has said. He either doesn't know the Senate procedure, where you need 60 votes--that is obvious--or he doesn't know math, because he only has 53.

Donald Trump is saying he wants a shutdown, and Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson should resist Trump's bullying. They know the only way to pass a budget is with bipartisan negotiation. In the 4 years when we Democrats had a majority, there was never a shutdown. Why? We talked to our Republican colleagues and created bipartisan proposals. We sat down and talked, which was normally what happened, except our Republican colleagues--Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson--are too afraid to buck Donald Trump.

Well, the American people won't stand for Donald Trump's status quo. They don't like the Republican partisanship. They expect both sides to come together and address the real needs they face, from healthcare to the cost of living. This is what Democrats offer the American people with our bill today if Senate Republicans heed their call.

Mr. President, I must speak for another moment about the

Would my colleague yield for a question?

Mr. President, I would just make one point to my good friend from Wyoming. When we were in the majority for 4 years, there was not a shutdown--not one. Why? Because we did what you are supposed to do: talk in a bipartisan negotiation and each side has input.

The reason we are having a shutdown now is you and your leadership refuse to talk to Democrats and have input and want only your imprimatur on the bill, which we believe hurts Americans badly with healthcare.

Never a shutdown when we were in leadership. You can quote all the things you want. We did it the right way. You are not.

Madam President, I enter a motion to reconsider with respect to the failed vote on S. 2882.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin) and the Senator from Utah (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.