{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=B4755D48-0548-4E61-BF95-9FA3303A64B8", "Thune: Schumer Shutdown Day 39", "2025-11-08", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Clickhereto watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, yesterday we finally heard Democrats entertain the notion of reopening the government.\n\n\u201cIt only took them 38 days.\n\n\u201cWhy, in the days before, progressives were urging Democrats to prolong the shutdown in perpetuity.\n\n\u201cOne House Democrat said, and I quote, \u2018There would be hell to pay if Senate Democrats don\u2019t let events play out.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd so while I\u2019m glad to see Democrats \u2013 after 38 days \u2013 back down from the maximalist and, frankly, insane position they\u2019ve held since September, the Democrat leader\u2019s proposal is a nonstarter for the Republican majority.\n\n\u201cThe Democrat leader wants [us] to believe that this is a \u2018simple\u2019 proposal.\n\n\u201cThat it is some sort of \u2018compromise.\u2019\n\n\u201cBut it is not.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s talking about throwing tens of billions more taxpayer dollars at a program that even Democrats admit has failed to lower health care costs.\n\n\u201cThe American people are tired of Washington taking their hard-earned money and spending it on costly government programs that fail to follow through on their promises.\n\n\u201cOf course, that\u2019s what Democrats have been doing for years with Obamacare.\n\n\u201cThey passed Obamacare 15 years ago without a single Republican vote.\n\n\u201cAnd in that time, Democrats\u2019 signature health care law has failed to do what Democrats promised.\n\n\u201cIf you like your health insurance you can keep it.\n\n\u201cNot true.\n\n\u201cIf you like your doctor you can keep him or her.\n\n\u201cNot true.\n\n\u201cPremium costs will go down.\n\n\u201cNot true \u2013 and actually the opposite is true.\n\n\u201cThey keep going up.\n\n\u201cObamacare drove premium prices higher.\n\n\u201cSo in 2021, in Democrats\u2019 American Rescue Plan Act \u2013 a bill best known for setting off a years-long inflation crisis \u2013 Democrats created these Biden bonuses, further papering over the higher premium costs under Obamacare with bigger taxpayer subsidies.\n\n\u201cAgain, they did that without a single Republican vote.\n\n\u201cAnd then in another partisan bill in 2022, they extended the subsidies through the end of this year.\n\n\u201cDemocrats chose the expiration date.\n\n\u201cThey created this cliff.\n\n\u201cAnd now they want to blame Republican for their mess.\n\n\u201cGive me a break, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cRepublicans are not about to further burden taxpayers by blindly extending a flawed program.\n\n\u201cThe Democrats\u2019 proposal is just more of the same, masking rising premiums and padding insurance companies\u2019 profits with more taxpayer dollars.\n\n\u201cThe Democrat leader\u2019s proposal is a nonstarter.\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s still only one path out.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a clean funding extension.\n\n\u201cThe House has already passed a clean funding extension.\n\n\u201cThe president supports one and would sign it into law immediately.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re only a handful of votes away from passing one right here in the Senate, Mr. President \u2013 a bill that has been sitting at the desk now for 38 days.\n\n\u201cWe reopen, and then we can start talking about addressing the health care mess that Democrats created.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I know that Democrats know this.\n\n\u201cJust yesterday, the Democrat whip came to the floor to say something that I\u2019ve been waiting for a Democrat to say for a long time.\n\n\u201cHe said that the first thing we need to do is reopen the government, then address the cost of health care and advance appropriations bills.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve been saying that for about six weeks now.\n\n\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s exactly what we need to do.\n\n\u201cToday.\n\n\u201cSo I hope the Democrat whip and others in his caucus will join the three Democrats who have been supporting a clean continuing resolution \u2013 the only bill that can actually end the shutdown.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I\u2019m glad to see that after 38 days, Democrats are finally warming up to the idea that their shutdown can\u2019t go on forever.\n\n\u201cAnd I urge my colleagues to support a clean continuing resolution so we can start a real discussion to address their health care mess, get back to the regular appropriations process, and, above all, finally provide relief to the American people.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", 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