It's the profound fear in the Democratic Party that drives this shutdown.
It is not principle.
It is not policy.
It is certainly not concerned for the constituents that they say that they want to represent.
We know that because even their own constituents now are begging Democrats to stop the political games and reopen the government.
Just yesterday, the largest union of federal workers, the very people that the Democrats claim that they fight for, came out publicly and urged the Democrats to join the Republicans in passing the House's very simple short-term funding bill.
Also, yesterday, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association began to put up flyers in airports to explain the real danger that is being imposed for air travel, air safety in this country, highlighting what the Democrats are doing.
So I just want to say this simply to our Democrat colleagues.
You have an off-ramp now.
You painted yourself into a corner, but here's your off-ramp.
The unions, the largest unions, are saying, please do this.
You can claim that as cover and say that you had to do it.
Reopen the government.
Get it working for the people.
It's our number one priority and responsibility as members of Congress.
But Senate Democrats have refused to do it for almost a month now.
And that's the Speaker of the House, and this is a Politico article with the headline, troops will get their paychecks this week, Vance says.
A vice president spoke after a Senate GOP lunch where he got an earful about the administration's plan to import Argentinian beef.
It says that he was suggesting to reporters yesterday that President Donald Trump has identified a new funding to identify new funding to avoid a first ever lapse in troop pay.
Here's his quote.
We believe that we can continue to pay the troops on Friday.
Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to pay everybody because we've been handed a very bad hand by the Democrats.
Let's take a look at Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.
He was obviously at the Capitol yesterday and he was asked about that government employees union.
unidentified
Did AFGE President Every Kelly speak to you before he put out a statement Monday?
And how do you respond to his statement that both parties have made their points?
Now it's time to reopen the government with a clean continuous.
Look, on November 1st, more than people in people in more than 30 states are going to be aghast, aghast, when they see their bills, and they're going to cry out.
And I believe there will be increased pressure on Republicans to negotiate with us.
So one person on Mark, what was it about this past election that made you finally start voting?
And I'm assuming you're going to start voting, and this wasn't just a one-off.
unidentified
Oh, no, no.
I started voting yesterday.
I did vote.
And no, it's not a one-off because you have to stand up for something.
Okay.
What made me do it?
Well, when the no-kings come around, right, the protests, and those are the only group that have a spine, right, that will get out there and actually say something and do something.
And each person can talk.
I was offered to talk, all right?
But I'm not a talker.
Okay.
I'm a doer.
Okay.
All we have in Congress and the Senate and the presidency is talkers.
Okay.
I'm not one of them.
Okay.
But you have to take a stand somewhere in life.
You have to take a stand.
Okay.
And this is a time that both sides are taking a hard stand.
It's almost like childish.
You know, it's not even an adult stand.
It's just people wanting their own way.
Stop wanting your own way and just help people.
That's all.
Just help people, regardless whether they're Republican, Democrat, Independent, whatever they are, whatever you label people as.
Okay, like they've labeled illegal aliens as illegal.
They're not illegal aliens.
In that case, we are all illegal aliens if you believe that this is God's planet because we are legally on his planet.
And we are taking your calls on the government shutdown.
We've got the phone lines on your screen.
It's 202748-8001 for Republicans.
It's 202748-8000 for Democrats.
And 202748-8002 for Independents.
If you are a federal worker, that line for you is 202748-8003.
And Betty is on the line for Democrats in Jackson, Tennessee.
unidentified
Yes, I have three things to say.
I'm pretty near 90 years old.
The gentleman that was just on there, the reason Mr. Johnson lies because you tell a lie once and it's a lie.
You tell a lie a million times and for some reason it becomes the truth.
I don't understand.
Our president has this romance with the fountain pen.
Why he can't just sign one of them executive orders and open the government.
That's what he does for everything else, and nobody ever stops him for doing anything.
And my last thing I got to say is: I hope Mr. Johnson and the president live a lot longer than I do.
I hope they have a long life.
Because when I get up there at them pearly gates, I don't want to be standing behind them because you've got to answer for every lie and every sin you've ever committed.
And Lord have mercy, I'll be standing there from now on.
I have a host of government, family, and military individuals that are extremely disappointed in the government,
the shutdown that affects our own American citizens and have decided just to insult us by saying to the military, I'm a veteran, my husband's veteran also, by saying to the military veterans also, thank you for your service, but we don't have anything for you.
But we're so discouraged by the foreigners that are in this country, and we don't even take care of our own American people.
The biggest insult in the world.
I don't understand it.
We should be ashamed of ourselves getting this divided in this ununited states of America.
And this is Senate Majority Leader John Thun was on Capitol Hill yesterday, and he was asked about the potential for the Senate to consider standalone bills to fund certain programs or pay federal workers.
Take a look.
unidentified
Are you inclined to continue to put up these standalone bills that perhaps pay the military to pay federal workers to provide SNAP assistance?
Or do you think it has to be done all in one fell swoop?
I mean, this piecemeal approach where you do one off here, one off there to make it seem, you know, more politically palatable to somebody or less painful.
That is a wrong way to do this.
There's just a simple way to do it, is to pick up the bill on the desk of the Senate and give us five more Democrat votes to pass it so that the president can sign into law and end the shutdown.
I get the rationale.
People think about these issues in terms of, well, this one, let's do this one, this one, or this one.
But that's not the way to approach this.
The way to approach this is to just reopen the government.
I think the White House, obviously, is faced with a tough decision.
They have to figure out how do they reallocate.
unidentified
We are going to break away here to bring you a discussion between Senators Tim Kaine and Rand Paul on tariffs and trade.
This is live coverage on C-SPAN.
I want to fresh off a Senate vote today on a bill they co-sponsored that Senator Kaine initiated to take back the control of tariffs and, in particular, to rescind the emergency tariffs put on Canada.
This follows a vote, I believe, yesterday on tariffs towards Brazil.