For more than 70 days, Senate Democrats claimed that they shut down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because they wanted to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Its clear now that they shut down DHS out of fear of their own voters.
The loon wing of the âthe folks who think Dr. Seuss is racist, Mr. Potato Head is sexist and children can change their genders at recessâis the largest and loudest segment of the Democratic Party. They hate our immigration laws. They want criminal illegal aliens to roam free while ICE officers rot in jail. And they have made it clear to every Democrat in office that a vote to fund ICE would haunt them for the rest of their natural lives.
But the American people dont want open borders, and they dont think cops are worse than criminals. They know it is bone-deep stupid to allow gang members, drug traffickers and terrorists to enter our country unchecked, and they support the ongoing effort to deport as many violent criminals as possible.
This left my Democratic colleagues with a choice: Stand up to the loon wing of your party or .
Democratic leaders pretended for more than a month that they would vote to fund ICE if the Trump administration enacted certain reforms. But as DHS adopted new policies, including a plan to have , Senate Democrats revealed that it didnt matter what ICE did; they werent going to vote to reopen the agency under any circumstances.
While Democrats performed this song and dance, more than , and chaos unfolded at every airport in America. And when I came to the Senate floor with my resolution to withhold pay from senators during government shutdowns, they blocked it.
They were willing to use the paychecks of federal employees as a political pawn, but they werent willing to share in that sacrifice themselves. The whole performance made most fair-minded Americans want to stick their heads in an oven.
As the anti-ICE, pro-Karen wing has grown in prominence, Senate Democrats have developed a severe allergy to common-sense policies.
Its why they voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill and the thousands of dollars of tax savings for the average American. And why they melted down when voted to rescind more than $9 billion in woke foreign aid, including funding for Sesame Street programs in Iraq, free vasectomies in Zambia and pastry-cooking classes for male prostitutes in Nepal.
I dont hate my Democratic colleagues for losing their minds to appease their political base. I dont hate anybody. But the loon wings dominance has changed how Republicans need to operate if we are ever going to get anything done.
The sad reality is that many of our Democratic colleagues have become unable to engage in good-faith negotiations. Their only tactic is to shut down the government and plunge our country into a dangerous state of chaos.
Thats why I was so pleased that Republicans finally agreed to . The 1974 Budget Control Acts reconciliation process established certain circumstances under which the Senate can pass major legislation with just 51 votes instead of the usual 60. This is how we passed the One Big Beautiful Bill last July.
Last week, we used the reconciliation process to pass and Border Patrol. This will ensure that the Trump administration can continue to keep our border secure and remove dangerous criminals from our country well into the future.
But we dont have to stop there. The Budget Control Act offers each Congress the reconciliation process to address concerns facing the American people. We should use them all.
Since we passed the One Big Beautiful Bill last July, I have been urging my fellow senators to put reconciliation to use to address the in America. When moms and dads try to sleep at night and they cant, its because theyre thinking about how expensive life has become since President Biden was in office.
The One Big Beautiful Bill made important changes t
