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Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, Democrats do not want a shutdown. Democrats also do not want millions of American families to go bankrupt next year because their healthcare premiums more than doubled. Democrats do not want people to get kicked off their healthcare, get sick, or even die. Democrats want to stop our rural hospitals from closing and laying off more staff.

We have been clear about this for weeks and weeks and weeks. All along, Democrats have made clear we are ready to hammer out a solution to prevent a shutdown and save people's healthcare. But I am afraid that at every step of the way, Republican leadership has made clear they would rather shut down the government than make sure people can afford healthcare. Apparently, working with Democrats to save American families money and keep the government open is too much for Republican leadership because their plan so far has been to let healthcare premiums double--double--next year and insist that Democrats swallow a bill that does nothing on healthcare.

President Trump and Republicans in Congress would rather shut down the government than have serious negotiations to lower costs, save healthcare, and prevent a shutdown.

Unfortunately, Republicans decided on the shutdown track weeks ago and have done nothing to steer away from that cliff. This is not hard to understand. Republican leadership has not been subtle.

If Republicans were serious about avoiding a shutdown, they would not have skipped town last week, and Speaker Johnson wouldn't be refusing to return lawmakers until after the funding deadline.

If Republicans were serious about avoiding a shutdown, they wouldn't be holding a vote on a bill that already failed and that, I should say, actually got fewer votes than Democrats' bill since eight Republican Senators didn't even bother to show up to take that vote.

If Republican leadership was serious about avoiding a shutdown, they wouldn't be refusing to hold the vote until the last minute.

If Republican leadership was serious about avoiding a shutdown, Trump wouldn't say:

Don't bother dealing with Democrats.

He wouldn't shrug his shoulders and say:

If it has to shut down, it will shut down.

If Republican leadership was serious about avoiding a shutdown, they would not have waited until the last possible moment to hold the meeting that could have happened weeks ago, and they would have listened and negotiated at that meeting instead of just saying ``my way or the highway.''

Ask yourself this: If Donald Trump and Republican leadership were serious about preventing a shutdown, would Trump be tweeting out completely unserious, AI videos riddled with lies, debunked conspiracies, and mariachi music? Would they be toying with the lives of public servants and threatening to fire more of them when they know the vital role that they all play in providing services to the American people? Come on.

The President is thrilled to be shutting things down and sowing division, not working to solve the problem. He is showing every day how unserious he is in this moment.

Let's look at this another way. What would the Trump administration and Republicans be doing if they wanted a shutdown? Well, if President Trump and Republicans wanted a shutdown, they might be planning how to cause as much damage as possible, planning how they would hurt women and children who need vital nutrition assistance.

The administration might be planning to conduct a shutdown as a pretext to conduct more of the mass firings we have seen for months and inflict more pain. Republicans might openly talk about how Trump ``welcomes'' a shutdown and how they will use it to advance their extreme agenda--exactly like Russ Vought and his team at OMB are doing and have been doing.

If President Trump wanted a shutdown, he might be scheduling meetings with Democratic leaders, only to cancel them and finally reschedule them at the last possible moment--exactly as he just did.

If Republican leadership wanted a shutdown, they might mischaracterize what Democrats' position is because they know that refusing to lower costs and protect people's healthcare, which is what they have been doing, is not popular. And, of course, mischaracterizing Democrats' positions is exactly what Republican leadership has been doing.

I swear, the only way President Trump knows how to compose a sentence is noun, verb, illegal immigrant. And hey, why not throw in ``transgender'' for good measure? That is how he aims to sow division and hatred.

Are they serious?

American citizens across the country are starting to get letters now warning that their premiums are set to double. Hospitals are already closing or laying off staff and not for no reason in particular--this healthcare crisis is happening explicitly because of Republican policy decisions.

Instead of talking with us about addressing healthcare from the start, Republicans decided to pass a partisan CR. They decided they would do nothing about the fact that healthcare premiums are about to skyrocket. They decided they preferred a shutdown because they don't want to act in time to prevent families from paying dearly with exploding healthcare costs.

Good luck explaining that to the American people.

Good luck arguing: Sorry Republicans left town until the eleventh hour and shut down the government, but, you see, we wanted to make sure you couldn't afford healthcare.

Good luck saying that to your constituents.

Good luck saying: You don't understand, those radical Democrats demanded we stop your premiums from more than doubling next year.

It is not going to fly. The American people are a whole lot smarter than that.

Despite all this, Republican leadership is pretending they want to talk about healthcare later. The reality Republicans won't talk about is that higher premiums are being announced right now. Let's be clear about that because it underscores why addressing healthcare is so urgent.

The reason we need to start this conversation right now is because people will receive letters in the mail with their new rates next month. In Idaho, open enrollment will begin October 15. We already know those rates are going to be much higher if Republicans insist on inaction. We already know millions of people are going to start losing their insurance. They will be priced out if we don't get this dealt with soon.

It is worth noting that according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a quarter--a quarter--of our farmers and ranchers are enrolled through the healthcare marketplace, and nearly one-half of marketplace enrollees are small business owners, small business workers, or self- employed.

Why do Republicans want to price farmers out of healthcare? Why don't they care about small businesses and their workers?

I heard about one family in my home State of Washington who learned that if Republicans get their way on this, their healthcare premium could jump from $278 a month to as much as $1,800 a month. And they are far from alone in staring down a huge, huge healthcare increase if Republicans refuse to act now. Millions of families are going to see their healthcare costs jump by thousands of dollars. That is why we have to act. That is what Democrats want to avoid. That is what we want to avoid, and we know we have to do this now, but still, Republican leadership has refused to start that conversation.

Meanwhile, Democrats are at the table. We have ideas ready to go. Democrats put forward our proposal for funding the government--not, as Republicans are pretending, as a ``take it or leave it'' demand but a proposal, one with several key issues we want to discuss with Republicans.

We want to talk about how we stop Republicans' Medicaid cuts before our families get kicked off their healthcare and before Republican cuts shutter many of our rural hospitals.

We want to talk about how we can stop Russ Vought from stealing money for cancer research.

We want to talk about how we save the healthcare tax credits that tens of millions depend on before those higher premiums kick in and get locked in, before families decide they just can't afford their coverage--in short, before it is too late--because if Republicans insist on sitting on their hands, if they decide to wait until the last minute to finally work with us to save these credits, 1\1/2\ million Americans will lose their healthcare. Again, that is if we do pass an extension at the last minute. If Republicans never get serious about this at all, it is going to be even worse. But even delay has a real cost and one that is paid for by our families. So it is time for Republicans to get serious.

Despite what Republicans are pretending, Democrats are not asking for the Moon here. We are literally just insisting that Congress take action to address the looming healthcare crisis that they themselves caused. It is shocking that Republican leaders are digging in so deep against doing this now. If nothing changes, that is a pretty ominous sign.

I hope, despite the completely partisan path Republicans are on right now, they will come to their senses and come to the table because I don't just want us to keep the government open with a deal brokered by both sides; I want to stop the enormous price increase that is about to hit families. I want us to ultimately get those full-year funding bills that help people--I want those to get signed into law.

Here we are. I have to say that right now, what we see is Russ Vought trying to hold government workers hostage. Right now, we have House Republicans refusing to even come back here to DC to do their jobs until next week. Right now, we have Senate Republicans replaying a failed vote.

Look, if Republicans want to avoid a shutdown like Democrats want to avoid a shutdown, then stop spending so much time saying you will sit down with us on healthcare later. Spend that time working with us right now. But if Republicans insist on writing a bill without any Democrats, they better pass it without Democrats, too, because I am a no.

Democrats will continue to work to keep government open and to save your healthcare. I am ready to keep the government open, as I said many times over the last several weeks, and I am ready and I am willing to stay at the table for as long as it takes. The question here remains, will Republican leadership get serious and negotiate?

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