Obamacare and Military Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I begin by commending my colleagues from Arizona. I couldn't agree more with them and what they were just talking about with regard to ObamaCare.

Similar to Arizona, Alaska is going through the same thing. We are now down to one health insurance provider in the entire State. It started with five, and we are now down to one for the entire State of Alaska. Similar to Arizona, our premiums and deductibles are going through the roof. I certainly want to work with my colleagues from Arizona on ways to address States and counties in Arizona or places like Alaska, where we have seen essentially no competition. So we certainly want to focus on that as well.

I also commend the Senator from Arizona, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, on what he has done for our military and how he has been a leader, really, in the country on national security and foreign policy issues. His leadership, particularly as the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, is absolutely critical for the national security and foreign policy of the entire country.

We are coming back from our work session. Most of us were home for the last 6 weeks. I had an amazing trip back home in Alaska and heard the concerns, hopes, dreams of my constituents across the State. I also saw a lot of pride. One reason I saw a lot of pride is that we have pride in our military forces that serve in the great State of Alaska, thousands and thousands of Active-Duty and Reserve Forces, more veterans per capita than in any other State in the country. I had the opportunity to visit with a lot of our veterans, a lot of our military Active-Duty and Reserve Forces. I also had the opportunity to bring a number of our U.S. military and civilian leaders up to Alaska to show them our troops, show them the great training. This was the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, the Secretary of the Army, the head of Missile Defense, the new combatant commander in charge of NORTHCOM. So we had a number of military officers visiting Alaska, and they got to see a lot of our troops, not only Alaska but Iowa National Guard, Hawaii troops, all training in the great State of Alaska.

You know that our troops are doing amazing work, not just the training in different bases throughout the country but keeping us safe throughout the world and risking their lives in combat throughout the world. I certainly don't have to mention to this body the number of troops we have deployed all over the world keeping us safe--in combat and risking their lives.

I mentioned the pride that Americans have in their military because it is really important to understand what just happened on the Senate floor about 20 minutes ago. What just happened? Sometimes it is hard to figure out the process. What did we just vote on? Let me put it bluntly. The minority leader of the Senate once again encouraged the Members of the other side of the aisle, of his party, to filibuster the funding for our troops. That just happened. The press will not report on it, but it is pretty remarkable given what we have going on in the world and one of the most sacred responsibilities of what we should be doing in this body. We just saw another filibuster of spending for the men and women who serve in the U.S. military. What a disappointment it is and what a disconnect between what is going on in the rest of America and here in DC.

I want to remind my colleagues of this. If you went back home, regardless of where you live, regardless of what party you are in, and you asked your constituents: Should we be funding our military right now, should we be funding the men and women who are overseas risking their lives, keeping this Nation safe, the answer, probably, of virtually every American in the United States of America would be yes.

I want to remind my colleagues that what just happened on the Senate floor--another filibuster of spending for our troops--wasn't the first time. Indeed, this is the bill that the minority leader of the Senate decided he wants to filibuster more than any other bill that we have brought up in the last year and a half.

This evening's vote was the sixth time that the minority leader of the Senate has led a filibuster against funding for our troops. He wasn't satisfied to do it one time or two times or three times or four times or five times--six times.

You and I and many other Members of the Senate were on the floor in July making the case that we shouldn't be doing this. We--I mean the Senate--should be focused on funding our troops. By the way, they read about this. For those who think the members of the military don't understand what is going on--that one party consistently denies them funding, that nobody understands that--that is not true. The troops know what is going on.

We were down here, like many other Members of the Senate, encouraging our colleagues to support the troops, to stop the filibuster. This is what our troops want. This is what the American people want, and this is what the Senate of the United States of America should be doing-- supporting our troops, not denying them funding.

I know my colleagues and I will continue to fight for this funding and fight these misguided attempts by the minority leader to undercut our troops, undercut our military, and undercut the funding that they desperately need and that should be a primary responsibility of this body.

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