Husted delivers Senate floor speech urging Democrats to reopen the government for the American people

View Husted's remarks here.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) today delivered a speech on the Senate floor to discuss the damages of the government shutdown on Americans and urge his Senate Democrat colleagues to join him in voting to reopen the government.

Key excerpts include:

"In the past, I watched government shutdowns from afar. They never made sense to me, and now I'm seeing one up close. And I can confirm that government shutdowns are senseless, and this one seems to be one of the most senseless ones of all."

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"Why for 38 days would the government be shut down?"

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"Well, I know this. On day one, I sat in this chamber and listened to the Majority Leader John Thune explain to our Democrat colleagues, 'open the government, and we'll negotiate on any priorities you want to discuss.'"

. . .

"But apparently that was not good enough for my Democrat colleagues, some of them who said that the shutdown was necessary to provide leverage to get the policies they wanted to and that they needed to stand up to President Trump."

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"The American people, they are the collateral damage for your leverage. That's who's paying the price for the political game."

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"And who are they? Who are they that's paying this price?

"Well, they are SNAP beneficiaries who don't know if they'll be able to afford food.

"They are the TSA agents and air traffic controllers who are missing paychecks, some of them having to take other jobs.

. . .

"The Capitol Police that protect this place and all of you. They are part of paying the price for this.

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"The staff in this chamber, the staff that serves all of you to keep the floor open, to keep the clocks running on time. They pay the price."

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"In my own state of Ohio, 8,000 civilian employees were furloughed from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

"The people that protect our country, they are paying the price for your leverage.

"These are real people, not bargaining chips."

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"My colleagues and I on this side of the aisle have voted 14 times to reopen the government."

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"My Democrat colleagues say they don't want to give up their leverage and fund government until all of their demands are met."

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"But let's be abundantly clear.

"It's not Republicans. It's not Republicans that you're hurting with this strategy.

"It's the American people, the American taxpayer."

. . .

"They're the ones that your strategy is hurting."

. . .

"I want to reduce the cost of health care when the government shutdown ends. I am happy to be one of the people that works on solving the problem that others created. We want to fix this. We want people to be able to afford health care."

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"But the way we do that is drive down the cost."

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"I want to work with anyone in this chamber that will change that, to eliminate the fraud that has filled up this ACA system, to target the benefits to those who truly need them, and to create an insurance market that doesn't rely on endless taxpayer subsidies."

. . .

"We can't change what happened in the past 38 days. But we can change the future.

"We can end this today.

"Right now."

. . .

"The American people expect their leaders to solve problems. Not to stage them, not to create them, which is what's happened during this government shutdown."

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"It's long past time to reopen the government to restore trust, and to prove that the senators in this chamber can lead."