[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 197 (Thursday, December 13, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S7533]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, we have just a little over a week to come 
to some agreement on how to fund the government past next Friday.
  Leader Pelosi and I have given the President two options to keep the 
government open. Both are noncontroversial. Neither contain any 
Democratic demand. We just want to keep the government open. So far, 
President Trump has not accepted either offer. The President appears to 
be clinging to his demand for billions of dollars for a border wall, 
and from what we saw in the Oval Office and news reports about his 
reaction after our meeting, President Trump is willing to throw a 
temper tantrum and shut down the government unless he gets his way.
  I want to be crystal clear. There will be no additional 
appropriations to pay for the border wall. It is done. The President 
repeatedly promised that Mexico would pay for his unnecessary and 
ineffective border wall, in his words, ``100 percent.'' On Tuesday, he 
said he would be ``proud'' to shut down the government unless U.S. 
taxpayers pay for it. Now, just this morning, the President tweeted 
that Mexico will pay for the wall through savings from the new NAFTA.
  Well, Mr. President, if you say Mexico is going to pay for the wall 
through NAFTA--which it certainly will not--then I guess we don't have 
to. Let's fund the government.
  Honestly, if the President really believed what he tweeted this 
morning, that his new NAFTA would pay for the wall, he wouldn't be 
threatening to shut down the government unless American taxpayers fund 
his wall. He can't have it both ways. The President's position on the 
wall is totally contradictory, ill-informed, and frankly irresponsible. 
It is not a serious proposal. It is a throwaway idea the President 
used--used in the campaign and still uses--to fire up his base.
  A Trump temper tantrum and shutdown threat isn't going to change any 
minds in Congress. President Trump has several ways to avoid a 
shutdown. He should pick one and soon, but if we wind up with a 
shutdown, it will be entirely the President's fault. President Trump 
himself would not dispute that in the Oval Office on Tuesday. He almost 
bragged that he would shut down the government--what irresponsibility.
  I would just like to remind my friend the majority leader that if we 
arrive at a Trump shutdown, the onus for reopening the government will 
soon fall in his lap. When Democrats take control of the House in 
January, Democrats will pass one of our two options to fund the 
government, and then Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans will be 
left holding the bag for a Trump shutdown if they don't pass our bill 
now.
  So there is no way for my Republican friends to avoid the issue. 
There is no way for Leader McConnell to avoid the issue, fearful of 
President Trump as they all might be. Either Republicans help deal with 
the President now or they will be left dealing with a much bigger 
problem in January.

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