John Thune

And now... There have been lots of conversations that have gone on the last few days.

I've been in touch, spoken with the White House and with the Speaker multiple times.

And I think what everybody realizes is that, you know, we have to do this now without Democrat votes.

And the way to do that, obviously, is to do it through the budget reconciliation.

Politics over policy.

self-interest over reform, pandering to their base over actually solving a problem.

It's an appalling commentary on the state of the Democratic Party.

Republican Senate Leader John Thune says it took 42 days.

Because it's now clear to everyone, Democrats didn't actually want a solution.

It's not politically good for anybody to have people out of work and important functions of our government not being carried out on a daily basis and functions that are important to our homeland security and our national security.

I know they think this is politically good for them.

It's not.

It's not politically good for anybody to have literally tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people out of work and important functions of our government not being carried out on a daily basis.

It's going to be very, very hard to explain if we leave town this next week without having funded the Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. President, public libraries ask for a photo ID.

In New York City, you have to provide some type of photo ID to get a library card.

Do you speak for all these Americans?

I don't understand.

Are you being paid by...

We don't have the votes either to proceed, get on a talking filibuster, nor to sustain one if we got on it.