Senator Cotton’s full floor speech may be found here and below.

 Senator Cotton: Well, here we are again.  Republicans merely want to fund the government for seven weeks.  The House of Representatives passed a simple bill with no partisan tricks or poison pills.  Yet, for the second time this year, the second time in barely six months, we again find ourselves on the cusp of a Schumer Shutdown.

I’m not here to remind you that Senator Schumer came to the Senate in 1999, and since then, he has supported—and voted in favor of—a continuing resolution to keep the government open more than 56 times.

I’m also not here to remind you that when Senator Schumer was in charge last year, Democrats had 224 days to bring 11 bipartisan spending bills to this Senate floor.  Even though six of these bills were passed out of committee unanimously, and the other five with overwhelming bipartisan support, then-Majority Leader Schumer failed to bring a single one of those bills to the floor.  Not one.

I’m also not here to tell you about the impact the Schumer Shutdown would have on our national security, on our economy, and on the American people and their families.  Instead of doing any of that, I think I’ll just let the Democrats speak for themselves.

Let’s turn the clock way back to the fall of 2013—when the series finale of Breaking Bad was aired and when the word “selfie” was added to the Oxford Dictionaries Online.  Though it may seem like ages ago, many of the Senate Democrats who are here now similarly found themselves on the edge of a government shutdown in 2013.

Let’s listen to what they had to say.  Senator Durbin said shutting down the government was “no way to run a country.”  And Senator Hirono agreed, stating, “dysfunction is not the proper way to govern.”

Senator Warren also echoed her colleagues and explained, “hostage tactics are the last resort for those who can’t otherwise win their fights through elections, can’t win their fights in Congress, can’t win their fights for the Presidency, and can’t win their fights in Courts.”

I don’t disagree.  The American people made the winners very clear when they went to the polls last November, and the Democrats lost their fights for Congress and for the Presidency.  I’d be remiss not to note all the left-wing radical policies that continue to be challenged and also lose through the courts.

Out of touch with reality and fresh out of ideas, the Democrats have made a short-sighted play to back the Schumer Shutdown.

Look at the dog and pony show they are putting on right now.  The Democrats are attempting to extort a laundry list of what President Trump has rightly called “unserious and ridiculous demands.”  These demands include: restoring taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens; wiping out a $50 billion rural hospital support fund; and sending your tax dollars overseas for climate initiatives.  In short, Democrats want to add $1.4 trillion in new spending to pay for the partisan pet projects that were soundly rejected by the American people last November.

Radical Democrats refuse to be reasonable and negotiate in good faith.  This reinforces a point that Senator Jack Reed made back in 2013 when he said, “forcing the government to shut down for reasons the vast majority of Americans disagree with is a terrible signal and could create undue hardships for families and businesses.”

This statement is as true now as it was then.  Democrats who support the Schumer Shutdown are voting to withhold the paychecks of air traffic controllers, our troops, federal custodial staff, and countless other hard-working Americans.

As Senator Sanders put it in 2013, “Shutting the government down will disrupt the economy and cost us jobs.”

Senator Schatz added, “Every moment that the government remains closed endangers our economy and American families across the country.”

Bottom line, the Democrats have acknowledged that a shutdown is not some political stunt.  As they said, a government shutdown can threaten national security by, for example, disrupting military training and recruiting, disrupting ongoing work to modernize our nuclear forces, and creating uncertainty in our defense supply chains.

That’s hardly a model of peace through strength that Americans have demanded of their elected officials.

But rather than listen to the American people, Senator Schumer and the Democrats make their own absurd demands.

To make matters worse, the Democrats are conflating the budget process with policymaking, an approach that they have long condemned.

Senator Murphy perhaps put it best in 2013 when he said: “There is a time and a place to debate health care, just like there is a time and place to debate energy policy and immigration and education—but not when the funding of the federal government, and all the lives that are impacted by it, hang in the balance.”

Senator Murphy in 2013: There is a time and a place to debate healthcare, not when the funding of the federal government hangs in the balance.

Enough is enough.  Again, in 2013—more than a decade ago—Senator Klobuchar called for an end to the “political gamesmanship.”  Likewise, Senator Blumenthal pledged to “do everything possible to work with my colleagues to make sure budget brinkmanship and political gamesmanship are halted.”

Yet solely because of the Democrats, here we are.  The political gamesmanship and the budget brinkmanship are still going on.

Let me state clearly: a Schumer Shutdown will be carried out at the expense and on the dime of the American people.  Remember, it wasn’t happenstance that the American people threw radical Democrats out of the Oval Office and Congressional leadership last fall.  So don’t be fooled—the Schumer Shutdown is a last-ditch effort to save face after spending years pushing disastrous policies that led to rising costs and skyrocketing crime.

Let me leave you with one last quote from 2013: “Don’t hold the American people hostage, simply cause you’re so sure you are right and everyone else is wrong.”

Any guess who said that one?  You got it. Senator Shutdown Schumer.

And because he has decided to move forward with the Schumer Shutdown and has refused to take his own advice, unfortunately, the American people will be left paying the price.