Sen. Kennedy: 'The loon wing will never love them; they’re better off doing the right thing'

By U.S. Sen. John Kennedy
R-Louisiana

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) delivered the following remarks on the U.S. Senate floor.

We have a government shutdown. What does that tell us? I’ll tell you what it tells me: It’s simply that much more evidence that human evolution is a slow, slow process. I thought humans had advanced more as a species, but apparently, we haven’t.

We can’t keep government open just with Republican votes here in the Senate. We only have 53 Republicans. We need seven Democrats to join with us. So, for my Democratic colleagues to say, "Well, the Republicans are in charge, and they don't need us." They know that’s not accurate.

What we have proposed to our Democratic colleagues and the Minority Leader, Sen. Schumer, is to make no changes to the current budget. We just want to continue the current budget and keep the government open until just before Thanksgiving to give us more time to negotiate a permanent budget. 

We did that many times when President Biden was president, and when the Democrats had the majority. 

In fact, we did it 13 times. But this time the Democrats have said no, no, no, no, no. We want more.

You may be thinking, "OK, that's reasonable. What do you want?"

Well, it’s not reasonable. And in fact, what the Democrats are saying to us is that. "We’re going to close the government unless you Republicans agree to make it bigger. We don't want the status quo. We want you to commit to spending $1.5 trillion more than you’re spending now."

Their demands to keep government open, you could stack them here, and you could stand on them and paint the ceiling. And that’s not much of an exaggeration. When Sen. Schumer announced these demands, that’s when I knew. I knew it in a nanosecond. We’re going to have a shutdown.

The loon wing is mad at many of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate. They shouldn't be, but they are. And, therefore, many of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate are scared of the loon wing, and they want the loon wing to love them. 

The loon wing will never love them. They're better off doing the right thing, and they know what the right thing to do is.

So, if you want a shutdown, I say to my Democratic friends, you better be prepared to deal with the mud. How are you going to get it back open? How are you going to get it back open? I wouldn't want to be in their shoes to have to make that decision.