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Thune blasts Democrats after Senate fails to pass Pentagon funding bill as shutdown drags on · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Preefists to the Senate. Do he chosen and sworn not
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: having voted an affirmative, the motion is not agreed to.
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  Speaker 1: As President Majority Leader, I enter motion to reconsider. The
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  Speaker 1: motion is entered. Well, mister President, the Democrat party is
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  Speaker 1: the party that will not take yes for an answer.
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  Speaker 1: We offer Democrats a clean, non partisan c are, no
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  Speaker 1: Republican policies for them to swallow, nothing for them to
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  Speaker 1: object to. They said no. We offered to accommodate their
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: health care demands by guaranteeing them a vote on their
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  Speaker 1: proposal if they vote to reopen the government. The answer
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  Speaker 1: is no. Okay, fine, So we thought, if they don't
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  Speaker 1: want to fund the government via continuing resolution, we'll give
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  Speaker 1: them the chance to fund the government a different way
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  Speaker 1: by attempting to move forward with regular order appropriations bills.
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  Speaker 1: And once again the answer was no. Democrats just voted
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  Speaker 1: to block the fiscal year twenty twenty six Defense Appropriations Bill,
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  Speaker 1: a bill I would add that passed the Senate Appropriations
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  Speaker 1: Committee by a robust bi partisan margin twenty six to three.
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  Speaker 1: I think it was that's right, mister President. After voting
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  Speaker 1: last week for an authorization bill to increase true pay.
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  Speaker 1: Democrats just voted against the bill that would actually pay
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  Speaker 1: the troops. We have to ask the question why, mister president,
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  Speaker 1: because to quote a recent news story, this is a
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  Speaker 1: direct quote. Voting to proceed with the defense bill relinquishes
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  Speaker 1: some of the party's leverage end quote. Relinquishes some of
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  Speaker 1: the party's leverage. I mean, who really cares, right if
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  Speaker 1: the troops are paid, as long as the Democrats are
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  Speaker 1: able to get what they want. Oh, mister President, I
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  Speaker 1: offered up, and I had conversations with Democrats here on
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  Speaker 1: the floor that if we could get on the Defense
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  Speaker 1: appropriations bill, the interest they have in adding other bills,
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  Speaker 1: I would certain accommodate. And I suggested that that was
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  Speaker 1: the business model that we adopted when we passed the
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  Speaker 1: first three bill package. We got on the mil con
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  Speaker 1: Va Appropriations Bill, and then we worked collectively both sides
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  Speaker 1: to try and clear adding the ag Appropriations Bill, the
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  Speaker 1: Ledge Branch Appropriations Bill. We tried to add the CJS
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  Speaker 1: Appropriations Bill, which was objected to by one member on
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  Speaker 1: the Democrat side. But that's how we fashioned getting these
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  Speaker 1: appropriation bills on the f and getting them voted on. Now,
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  Speaker 1: if anything should be clear by now. If anything should
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  Speaker 1: be clear by now, is that I am interested in
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  Speaker 1: doing a normal appropriations process, unlike what happened when they
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  Speaker 1: had the majority, which was the Appropriations Committeehe report bills
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  Speaker 1: out eleven of the twelve last year, not a single
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  Speaker 1: one was brought to the floor of the Senate. We've
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  Speaker 1: done three bills, we're trying to go to conference on them.
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  Speaker 1: They're blocking that. So now we bring up the Defense
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  Speaker 1: Appropriations Bill, something that should get eighty votes on the
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  Speaker 1: floor of the Senate that, as I said, came out
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  Speaker 1: of the committee twenty six to three, and they're blocking it.
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  Speaker 1: Now there's a path forward here to do appropriations get
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  Speaker 1: on the bill, and then we'll try and add other
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  Speaker 1: appropriations bills as we work with both sides, the clear
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  Speaker 1: objections andncerns that people have. The fact of the matter is,
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  Speaker 1: mister President, they didn't have to block us even moving
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  Speaker 1: to the bill because there are multiple opportunities sixty vote
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  Speaker 1: threshold opportunities for them to block it later on if
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  Speaker 1: they don't like what happens. This is politics. If anything
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  Speaker 1: was needed to demonstrate just how fundamentally uninterested Democrats are
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  Speaker 1: and supporting our troops and defending our country. Just take
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  Speaker 1: a look at this vote. Mere months ago, mister President,
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  Speaker 1: I say, mere months ago, Democrats were complaining about all
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  Speaker 1: the damage shutdowns due to hard working Americans. I literally
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  Speaker 1: could fill the rest of this hour with Democrat quotes
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  Speaker 1: from the past few years about the devastating impacts of shutdowns.
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  Speaker 1: Now Democrats couldn't care less. They're happy to sacrifice any
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  Speaker 1: American and evidently any principle to their political goals. President.
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  Speaker 1: Democrats like to position themselves as the party of the
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  Speaker 1: little guy and the defender of hardworking Americans. But as
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  Speaker 1: this vote makes clear, who do Democrats really care about?
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  Speaker 1: Democrats this President, I yielded the floor and