[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 163 (Friday, October 3, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6940-S6942]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, well, the shutdown melodrama continues. I 
love the smell of melodrama in the morning. It smells like the U.S. 
Senate. I said the other day that this shutdown is just further proof 
that human evolution is a slow, slow process. With this shutdown, what 
you are witnessing now is just further proof about why it took human 
beings thousands of years to learn how to stand upright. This shutdown 
is bone-deep, down-to-the-marrow stupid.
  Some shutdowns are based on policy. Some shutdowns are based on 
politics. Some shutdowns are based on a combination of both. This one 
is pure. It is as pure as Ivory Snow.
  This shutdown is based on politics. Let me tell you what is going on. 
I believe in the two-party system. Why? Because two parties create 
competition, and competition makes all of us better. It does. The 
Democratic Party--the opposite of my party, the Republican Party--the 
Democratic Party is competing within itself right now, and there is a 
distinct wing of the Democratic Party that is winning that competition. 
If I wanted to use a pejorative suppression, I would call it the loon 
wing of the party, the loon wing of the Democratic Party or you might 
call it the Bolshevik wing of the Democratic Party.
  I think a more accurate description is to call it the socialist wing 
of the Democratic Party. I think that is fair. I am not saying that all 
of my Democratic friends are socialists, but there is clearly a wing of 
the Democratic Party that can only be described accurately as the 
socialist wing of the party. And that party is in ascendance. That 
party is in control.
  My friend Senator Schumer is the leader of the Democrats in the U.S. 
Senate. And he, of course, has instructed his colleagues to vote to 
shut down the government. And Senator Schumer has been criticized for 
that, and I understand. I don't agree with him. I think he made a 
mistake.

[[Page S6941]]

  But I don't think Senator Schumer is the leader of this effort. I 
don't. I think Senator Schumer, like many of his colleagues, would like 
to be loved by everybody in the party, and he would like to be loved by 
the socialist wing of his party. And I do think that is part of what is 
motivating this shutdown. And that is why I say it is all about 
politics.
  But I don't think Senator Schumer is the person in charge because 
Senator Schumer is not the leader of the socialist wing of his party. 
Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is. She is running the show. It was no 
accident the other day when the Congresswoman let it slip. She said: If 
you really want to negotiate the end of this shutdown, come see me. 
Come see me.
  And I think any fairminded person has to look right now and say that 
the two leading Members--the quarterback--the two leading Members of 
the socialist wing of the Democratic Party--the quarterback is 
Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, and her substitute is Senator Bernie 
Sanders. But I think it is the Congresswoman who is calling the shots.
  I don't hate anybody. I have said that repeatedly, and I mean it. I 
like all of my colleagues. I look for grace wherever I can find it. 
When I say my prayers, I do, every single time--I ask God: Don't let me 
hate because it is hard sometimes. It is hard. But I do. I say: God, 
don't let me hate.
  I certainly don't hate Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez. I want to make 
that very clear. She has the right to her opinion. She has the right to 
try to have the socialists take over the Democratic Party. That is the 
American way. Ironically, I think what she is doing is anti-American, 
but she has the right as an American to do it, so I don't hate her.
  But I judge her by her policy. She has her opinion, and I have mine. 
I have to judge her, candidly, by her policy. Here is what the 
socialist wing of the Democratic Party, led by Congresswoman Ocasio-
Cortez, has said to the American people and to the U.S. Congress and to 
the Republicans in Congress: If you, Republicans, don't agree to make 
the Federal Government $1.5 trillion--not million dollars, not billion 
dollars, $1.5 trillion--bigger, we are going to shut the government 
down.
  Of course we said no. I am not going to vote for that. My mother 
didn't raise a fool. As I said before, if she did, it was one of my 
brothers. I am never going to vote for that.
  Where do I come up with this figure of $1.5 trillion? Well, the first 
thing the socialists and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is asking us to do 
is to repeal the healthcare reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill. We 
just passed them. We just passed them. Here it is, subtitle B, Health, 
in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
  We didn't cut Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill. In fact, under 
our bill, Medicaid is going to increase 2 percent a year over the next 
10 years. What we did by reforming Medicaid, which Congresswoman 
Ocasio-Cortez wants us to reverse, we cut out the waste and the fraud.
  For example, we found out that there are--no kidding, I am not just 
making this up--we found out that there are 2.8 million people on 
Medicaid who are double-dipping in America. They are either signing up 
for Medicaid in Louisiana and Mississippi double-dipping or signing up 
for Medicaid in Louisiana and they are signing up for the Affordable 
Care Act subsidies. That is called cheating.
  Our bill would put an end to that, and it would save about $140 
billion on ten years. The socialist wing of the Democratic Party and 
Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez wants us to reverse that.
  The second thing we did in our healthcare reforms in the One Big 
Beautiful Bill is to say you have to stop lying when you apply for 
Medicaid. Under President Obama, we had virtually no eligibility 
checks. People could walk in, and the Medicaid folks would say: How 
much do you make a year? They could say $30,000 a year, and they would 
say, OK, you qualify.
  Now, I trust people. I have said it before on this floor. I play 
cards with my friends all the time. They are friends. I cut the cards 
anyway. We have found--for example, just in Louisiana, we did a 
statistical sample of the people on Medicaid in Louisiana. Our auditors 
found 1,600 people on Medicaid who were making $100,000 a year or more. 
That is cheating. So our bill put an end to that. Congresswoman Ocasio-
Cortez and the socialist wing of the Democratic Party want us to put it 
back. They want us to let people cheat.
  What else are the socialists asking for in this $1.5 trillion? Well, 
they are saying: We don't want people who can work to work.
  We put a provision in our bill that the Congresswoman and the 
socialist wing of her party want us to take out that says: Look, if you 
are between the ages of 19 and 64 and you are able-bodied--we are not 
talking about a mother with a sick child in her arms--if you are able-
bodied, if you are perfectly healthy, and if you don't have any 
dependent kids at home, then, if you qualify based on income, we will 
give you Medicaid. But you have to work. You have to work 20 hours a 
week or go to school 20 hours a week or do community service 20 hours a 
week because the free enterprise system--jobs--has done more to lift 
people out of poverty than all the social programs put together.
  That is what is called a work requirement. What is wrong with that? 
Those who can work should work. Our welfare programs were meant to be 
bridges, not parking lots. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and the 
socialist wing of her party want us to reverse all of that.
  What else do they want us to do? Well, they are upset at us over the 
Affordable Care Act. Let me tell you what all this is about with the 
Affordable Care Act.
  Under ObamaCare, if you are a low-income American, you are entitled 
to Medicaid. If you are a middle-income American, if you have a job, 
then chances are, you get insurance through your employer. Most people 
do. But if you are in the middle and if you make a little more money 
than the poverty level but you can't get insurance through your 
employer, we provide what is called the ObamaCare exchanges.
  So when we talk about the ObamaCare subsidies, that is what we are 
talking about. It is about 24 million people, and it was meant for 
lower income people.
  Up until 2019, it was all for low-income people. Then, in 2019, 
without any Republican votes, President Biden said: Look, we are in a 
pandemic. We are going to raise the limit. We are going to say that 
there are no income limits on ObamaCare--paid for by the taxpayer.
  We have 24 million people on ObamaCare.
  When they raised the limits, you could make any amount of money and 
still get a subsidy. That added about 1.6 million people on ObamaCare. 
ObamaCare was meant for people who make from roughly $30,000 a year to 
$130,000 a year for families of four. Now, because President Biden 
raised the cap, we have people making $600,000 a year, $150,000 a year, 
and families making $200,000 a year who are getting subsidies from the 
American taxpayer. Why? Because they said we needed it in the pandemic.
  The pandemic is over, and that is why the Democrats, when they passed 
the bill, put in a provision that says that at the end of this year, 
those extra subsidies are going to end.
  Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez says: No. Until you agree to let them 
continue, to let anybody at any income level get subsidies, we are 
going to shut the government down.
  That is their third demand, and that is part of the $1.5 trillion.
  Finally, of course, the Congresswoman is saying: We want you to give 
half a trillion dollars--not $500,000, not half a billion dollars but 
half a trillion dollars--we want you to give half a trillion dollars to 
the Corporation for Public Broadcasting because we like what they say.
  Well, we just eliminated money for all forms of media.
  Now, those are the demands. Those are the demands. I will just 
mention one more.
  Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez got very, very upset, as did the 
socialist wing of her party, when the President sent over what is 
called a rescission package.
  Basically, President Trump said: We want you to take some stuff out 
of the budget that we think is a waste.
  We did, and that upset the Congresswoman. She is entitled to be upset 
if

[[Page S6942]]

she wants to. But that really upset the socialist wing of the party.
  So we took it out, and here is what they want us to put back in. We 
found that under President Biden, they were spending $3 million for 
circumcisions and vasectomies in Zambia. We took that out.
  The Congresswoman says: We are going to shut down the government 
until you put that back in.
  We found $500,000 of American taxpayer money for electric buses in 
Rwanda.
  We found $3.6 million for pastry cooking classes and dance focus 
groups for male prostitutes in Haiti. I kid you not. I am not making 
this up. It was in the budget under President Biden. We took it out.

  Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and the socialist wing--the loon wing of 
the Democratic Party--says: We are going to shut down the government 
until you put it back in.
  I will just read you a few more that we took out that they are 
demanding we put back in.
  There was $6 million for media organizations for the Palestinians; 
$833,000 for transgender people in Nepal; $300,000 for a pride parade 
in Lesotho; $882,000 for social media mentorship in Serbia; $4.2 
million--we took it out, and the Congresswoman and the socialist wing 
of their party says we have to put that back in before they will open 
the government--$4.2 million for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, 
queer, and intersex people in the Western Balkans and Uganda.
  I could spend the rest of the afternoon on this. We took all of that 
out. It upset Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, and it upset the socialist 
wing of her party. Now that wing of her party and the Congresswoman are 
threatening all other Democrats and saying: You have to shut the 
government down until we get what we want.
  Part of what they want is to add this kind of stuff back into the 
bill. That is what this fight is all about.
  We were in the process of negotiating a budget with our Democratic 
friends. We ran out of time. The cutoff was midnight Tuesday night. 
That is when--the clock struck midnight, and the budget ran out.
  What we had asked for and what we are still asking for is, let's 
continue to negotiate--``we'' meaning the Republicans and the 
Democrats--for 6 more weeks and to try to agree on a budget. That is 
all we are asking. We are not asking for any additional appropriations, 
any conditions, any stipulations. All we are asking for is what we call 
a clean CR. All we are asking for is just to further negotiate.
  Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has done a stellar job in rising to the 
leadership of her party as a member of the socialist wing, and they are 
about to elect a socialist mayor of New York. I think Mr. Mamdani is 
going to win. They have said to our request--let's just continue the 
status quo for 6 more weeks--they said: We will give you 6 more weeks 
if you will give us $1.5 trillion.
  That is what they are demanding, and that is why we are shut down.
  Let me say it again. I don't hate anybody. This is America. I sure 
don't hate the Congresswoman. She is entitled to her opinion, but I am 
entitled to mine. She can criticize my policy positions, but I am 
entitled to criticize hers.
  I am here to tell you, Mr. President, in front of God and country, 
based on her policy positions that she is demanding--based on her 
policy positions that she is demanding that I just outlined of $1.5 
trillion of pure, unadulterated spending porn--based on that demand and 
based on her policy positions, the American people are looking at her 
and saying: This person has singlehandedly put an end to dumb blond 
jokes because that is the craziest thing I have ever heard.
  Based on her policy positions--$1.5 trillion of this kind of spending 
porn--the American people are looking at the Congresswoman and saying: 
With respect, she must be bilingual--she must speak English and stupid.
  And that is why we are not agreeing to it.
  Now, I know every one of my Democratic colleagues, and I know more 
than half of them know better. They know what we are asking for is 
reasonable. I am just asking them to meet us halfway. We are not asking 
for any additional provisions, and they shouldn't ask for any 
additional provisions. Let's just open back up and continue to 
negotiate for 6 weeks. Don't be scared of the Congresswoman. Don't be 
scared of the socialist wing of your party.

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