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

Well, Mr. President, it looks like we're going to have a shutdown. What does that tell us? I'll tell you what it tells me. It's simply that much more evidence that human evolution is a slow, slow process. 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 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 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

in 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 dollars, 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 it the one big beautiful bill. 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 Medicaid, who aren't

eligible for Medicaid, that you 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 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 the first demand 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, 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 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. On the non-Medicaid 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 low-income 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's 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 enlarge the subsidies.

He took the cap off the amount that you needed to earn in order to get Obamacare. Those subsidies at the end of this year are about to run out. Now, the Republicans have said, we'll sit down with our Democratic friends and talk about how to run out. Now 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 a hundred and twenty-five,

hundred and fifty, two hundred and fifty, two hundred thousand dollars a year are getting their health insurance subsidized by the federal government. That's bone deep down to the mayor's stoop. But the Democrats, Senator Schumer and his colleagues have said, no, 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 that's just some of my colleagues' demands. I mean, you need an Excel spreadsheet to be able to follow their demands. Their demands to keep government open, you stack them here, you could stand on them and paint the ceiling. And that's not much of an exaggeration. And when Senator Schumer announced these demands, that's when I knew. I knew it in a nanosecond. We're going to have a shutdown. Because 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 like the human experience changes over time. Political parties change. My parties change. So is the Democratic Party. And there is a wing of the Democratic Party. I call it the socialist wing.

Some less charitable people call it the loon wing of the Democratic Party. And they are in charge right now. And the non-loon, non-socialist 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 hate, if you listen to them, they hate Thomas Jefferson, they hate Abraham Lincoln, they hate George Washington, they hate Dr. Seuss. They hate Mr. Potato Head. They think our kids should be able to change genders back and forth at recess. Kids! 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 believe that if you support the law, which says you have to be vetted to come into our country, if you support the law, you're a racist. I think if you support the law, you're being prudent. But they believe in open borders.

And my Democratic friends are about to elect a new mayor in New York City, who is a member of the Loon Wing. He's a self-avowed socialist. He has said if the Prime Minister of Israel comes to New York City, he will have him arrested. But this is not the majority of Democrats that believe this. I don't think that for a second. And I know many of my Democratic colleagues here don't believe that. But the loon wing, the socialist wing,

the angry Gary Busey 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 loon wing is mad at many of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate are scared of them. And the loon wing is mad at many of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate. They shouldn't be, but they are. And therefore, many of my Democratic

colleagues in the Senate are scared of the loon wing, and they want the loon wing to love them. The loon 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.

Maybe I'm naive, but I still think too many of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate know better. Once you shut government down, you've got to get it back open. How are they going to get it back open? We're not going to agree to their demands. One and a half trillion dollars. They know we're not going to agree to their demands. One and a half trillion dollars.

They know we're not going to agree to it. So how is my friend Senator Schumer going to get government back open? You know, there's a famous movie line. I don't remember the movie. I think Denzel Washington said the line. I love Denzel Washington.

He's what cool looks like. The guy's awesome. He's a total baller. I love Denzel 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 few words. 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. All of us get phone calls from folks scared to death. They're not going to get their social security check or they're not going to be able to see their doctor and it just breaks my heart.

So I want to give them a little bit of assurance. During the shutdown, the executive branch will be in charge and the Trump administration is not going to do anything to hurt our elderly. I want to assure them of that. If you're receiving a Social Security check or Medicare or Medicaid or a veteran's 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're hungry and you don't have money to eat, we're not going to let you starve to death. The administration is going to continue payments. What we call it, some people call it SNAP. I call it food stamps.

And we will continue the payments for the women, infants and children's program. Most of us refer that to WIC. You'll still get your mail. Don't worry about that. Postal service will be working through the shutdown. If you depend for health care on your Veterans Administration 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. Probably we've got two, two and a half million 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. You'll notice it in 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. You know, we've still got a little time. Midnight tonight, and we're going to be taking some votes here in a few minutes, give our Democratic colleagues one last chance, one last chance to do the right thing. And I certainly hope they accept it.

With that, Mr. President, I appreciate your patience, With that, Mr. President, I appreciate your patience, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.