Senator Marshall: The Number One Motivation to Shut the Gov’t Down is Trump Derangement Syndrome

Washington – On Thursday,U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), delivered remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate, calling out Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for bending the knee to the radical left-wing elements of the Democrat Party, and for the Democrat Party’s insistence on playing hypocritical games with America’s healthcare system.

Click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall’s full remarks.

Senator Marshall’s full speech as delivered:

“Mr. President, here we are, day number two of the Schumer shutdown. Or should we call this the AOC shutdown? After all, when the puppet master gets outmaneuvered by his own radical Squad, who’s really calling the shots? Shouldn’t we give this Squad some credit here for this shutdown?

“Now, let me say that in a different way. This Democrat shutdown is nothing but a cynical political shutdown, with Senator Schumer kowtowing to his radical left-wing extremists. He’s desperately recoiling, fighting to stave off a primary and to save his party from the piranhas in their own midst.

“Look, I’m sure he feels like he’s been steamrolled by President Trump. An overwhelming America First mandate from 78 million American patriots who voted for real change. Everything else, all of their excuses, is just a pathetic smoke screen to hide their failures. But let’s take a closer look at some of these Democratic excuses. Again, they’re decoys. They’re camouflaged. And why this is indeed a Schumer shutdown.

“First of all, there’s no substance to their arguments. They want to talk about healthcare. Boy, do Republicans want to fix healthcare, but the real problem is the cost of healthcare. Healthcare has gone up 400% in the last couple of decades; it’s the cost of healthcare. All my Democrat friends want to do is just keep throwing more and more money, more and more subsidies, making big healthcare systems rich.

“Premiums are going to go up 20% this year. Healthcare is what’s leading inflation; if it weren’t for healthcare inflation, we’d probably be down closer to 2%. So, regardless of what happens here in Congress in the next three to four months, your healthcare premium is going to go up 20% on average. This shutdown is keeping us from working on the real problem, and that’s the cost of healthcare.

“Think about Republican solutions that we have out there right now. We have a legislation we call a Price Tags Bill that we hope to debate and markup in the Healthcare Committee this fall. What that bill does is it forces every hospital, surgery center, and imaging center to put a price tag on the procedures you’re going to have done. Could you imagine walking into a restaurant and not knowing the price of a good Kansas steak versus some cheap grade steak from another country? You couldn’t imagine that.

“So when you’re sitting there deciding whether to have your hip replaced at a hospital, like in my hometown of Great Bend, America, versus having it done at another facility, you’ll see that you can have the same procedure done for maybe a fifth at a cost at other facilities. And by the way, we have better outcomes. We have better customer service as well. So patients deserve price tags.

“You know, other solutions out there are expanding healthcare savings accounts, where you can use pre-tax dollars for different opportunities as well. And then, if you really want me to solve the riddle of the cost of healthcare, we need to make America healthier again. And that’s why Republicans under President Trump, Secretary Kennedy were trying to pass policies which would lead to a healthier America.

“Think about it, 70% of Americans have a chronic disease. You think about heart disease and hypertension, obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and mental health issues. 90% of the healthcare dollars being spent in this country are spent on those chronic diseases. You think about our youth. 20% of our youth are on a prescription drug. 30% are obese. 40% of our youth have a chronic disease. We have a mental health epidemic in our youth as well.

“So if you want me to drive down the cost of healthcare, we need to make a healthier America. We need more transparency, we need to promote innovation, and we need to turn patients into consumers again.

“And then lastly, and most importantly, we need to make America healthy again, and for all the right reasons. You know, the benefit of driving down the cost of healthcare is just one of them. Think about this: America is spending 18% of its GDP on healthcare right now. Singapore is spending 4% most advanced countries are going to spend half of what we do on healthcare.

“People ask, then why are our outcomes worse? It’s because we’re sick. We have sicker people. The incidence of diabetes, of hypertension, all those things are going through the roof. That’s why our outcomes aren’t as good as other countries.

“Rural Healthcare. Let’s talk about rural healthcare for a second. My goodness, do I care about rural healthcare. I was born in a rural hospital. I had an OB practice for 25 years in rural America. I was on call every, every day, every other day, for 25 years. You can call my wife and ask her that we didn’t sleep through the night for 25 years, we delivered a baby almost every day.

“And then I was blessed to lead a group of doctors and run that rural hospital for over a decade as well. I oversaw three health departments. If anybody understands the importance of rural healthcare, I think it would be me. And that’s why I’ve spent a lifetime trying to fix all these riddles that we have right now. Now, my friends across the aisle say they’re worried that rural hospitals are closing all of a sudden. All of a sudden, they want to try to fix this issue. Well, they’ve actually, you know, contributed to the problem.

“But here’s one of the most hypocritical things I’ve ever heard since being up here. So the Democrats say that they’re closing the government because they want to save rural hospitals, but the first thing they’re going to do is take $50 billion away from our Rural Health Transformation Funding. $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Funding. Something that I’ve been working on with this Administration since the New Year’s. What would that look like if we even had the money?

“But no. What my friends across the aisle want to do… they want to control healthcare. They want to keep throwing good money after bad money. They think that Medicaid is going to save the day. Let me tell you something about Medicaid. Only 5% of Medicaid funding goes to rural America. 5% of Medicaid funding goes to rural America. Hospitals, doctors lose money on every Medicaid patient we see.

“Now. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take care of them. We took care of everybody in our hospital, regardless of their ability to pay, regardless of whether they were a citizen or not. We didn’t know, we didn’t care, we went in and took care of these patients, but certainly, running a private OB practice and running a hospital, I realized that we lose money on every Medicaid patient we see.

“And having Medicaid is not the same as access to healthcare. Who in the world even thinks that could be the case? Talk to any doctor, talk to any patient who has Medicaid, ask them, let’s say that they’ve got a herniated disc in their back. Ask them how long it’s going to take to get in to see a neurosurgeon. It’s going to take six months. It’s going to take a year. So in reality, probably less than half of doctors, in a true measure, participate in Medicaid. It’s got to be the most failed system, the biggest waste of money I’ve ever seen. There are better solutions out there than Medicaid.

“I’m so excited about, again, solutions. Republicans have solutions. I’m so excited about this Transformation Fund and the opportunity that does that. Here’s what’s really rich, here’s what’s rich. So there are hospitals closing… and pharmacies closing. Today, tomorrow, last year. But that’s a result of the Democrats’ failed policies. Our legislation that we passed this year, signature legislation that’s going to change the course of America, none of that’s going to really kick in for two or three years.

“It is just beyond me for the leader of the Democrat party to set up here and cry about hospitals closing in rural America today and blaming Republicans. If there’s any hospital closing today, tomorrow, or next year, the Democrats own it. They own the failed policy, and America gets that. My gosh, I never heard something so ridiculous in my life.

“But again, Republicans have solutions, and we want to fix it. One of the ways to fix… why these hospitals are failing is the economy. Rural hospitals are a reflection of the local economy. As agriculture goes, so goes rural America, so go these hospitals.

“And by the way, 97% of these rural counties voted for President Trump. He’s never going to turn his back on them. We, as Republicans, are not going to turn our backs on them. I wake up every morning trying to figure out how do we save rural hospitals and rural America? How do we recruit doctors to rural America? How do we recruit nurses to rural America?

“And all of a sudden, the Democrats have got salvation here, and they care about it. No, they’re hiding behind that issue. They are hiding behind it because they don’t have any substance to stand on.

“Again, the ACA has been the rule of the land for 15 years. If there are any hospitals failing today, and there are, it’s because of the overregulation of the ACA. Just like banks are consolidating hospitals consolidating, and healthcare are consolidating, all these different entities are consolidating because of overregulation created by Democrats. Our rural Transformation Funding is going to set those rural counties free to do what they think is best with the money.

“All right, let’s go to the next Democrat argument. Let’s talk about these Covid-era subsidies for the ACA plans. What a joke. Just absolutely cannot believe they’re going to hide behind this one. So think back to the original ACA. So the ACA sets up funding to help supplement insurance premiums for a group of people based on their ability to pay. And that’s probably 70, 80% of the premium right now, on average, is what it was set up to be. In some cases, it’s, it’s was 95%.

“But then Covid comes along, and the Democrats boost those subsidies so that now that many Americans aren’t contributing anything to those particular funds, and what this has led to is mass fraud. Okay? So these Covid-era subsidies have led to mass fraud.

“Let me put some dollars and cents on this. When the ACA was first written, they thought we’d be spending maybe 25 or $50 billion a year on these subsidies. Well, we’re spending $150 billion a year on these subsidies. We think that probably a third of that is waste, fraud, and abuse. And I could spend the next half hour talking about why, indeed, there’s waste, fraud, and abuse there within it.

“But the way it was created allows for waste, fraud, and abuse. I can’t fix that today. I can’t fix it tomorrow. We need to fund the government and get back to work on this issue, and we know how to do it. But for Republicans who agree to these subsidies being continued, the first thing we have to do is to address the fraud. And I bet that’s a 90-10 issue. I bet that 90% of Americans would like us to fix the fraud in that issue and make sure the people who need it the most are getting the help. So that’s one issue with the Covid-era subsidies.

“The next big issue, I want to go back to the premiums. Okay, that’s the real issue. These premiums are going to go up 20% this year. So, regardless of again, what we do here, the premiums are going to go up 20%. That’s where the sting is coming from, which is how much these premiums are going up. And my friends across the aisle just want to keep throwing money at it. They want this corporate welfare, where these subsidies are basically enriching big insurance companies. That’s exactly what’s happening.

“These subsidies are basically going to this consolidated insurance business out there. Most states like mine only have two or three insurance carriers left standing. And then when these subsidies go up for the people on the ACA plan, guess what, they’re going to use that as an excuse to increase your plan that you’re getting through that hard-working job of yours as well.

“So to have a meaningful discussion about these Covid-era subsidies, we need to, number one is to address the fraud, and number two is we need to address the rate of increase of these premiums as well.

“And listen to this. Even if this Covid subsidy went away, the Federal Government, on average, would be paying 80% of the premium. So we’d be paying 80% rather than 90% of the premium. But if the premium has gone up 20%, just think about the difference on 80% versus 90%. That’s where the sting is truly coming from. When do Democrats want to have a serious conversation about this, the real conversation about the cost of healthcare?

“My friends across the aisle want to bring these two issues together. They want to take a hostage in order to keep the government open. They’re saying you’ve got to give us these Covid-era subsidies to prolong them, but they’re supposed to expire December 31 of this year. The Democrats passed this. It was supposed to be for Covid, and like all the other Covid subsidies that drove us into massive debt, these are supposed there was a sunset on them. They wrote the law. If they didn’t want it to sunset, why didn’t they continue the program for infinity, just like they did with the original subsidies?

“So this, to me, is two different issues. We have the issue here of keeping the government open. We have the issue here of healthcare, and I want to take care of both of them, but it’s going to take weeks, probably months, for us to come up with a solution for these COVID subsidies. So I don’t think it’s fair to keep the government closed down because they weren’t willing to talk about this.

“You know, it’s interesting that, you know, we didn’t hear a thing about this. At least I didn’t hear from the Minority Leader that he was concerned about this till just a couple of days ago, again, which makes me think he wanted the shutdown. He wanted the shutdown to appease his liberal, left base.

“Here’s another argument the Democrats are making. You know, there’s a fight about healthcare for illegal aliens, and I don’t think anyone can argue that before our working families tax cut bill, our signature bill that’s going to grow the economy, that before that legislation, illegal aliens were getting healthcare.

“Even the CBO, and I hate to pick and choose when I use the CBO numbers, but the CBO said 2 million illegal aliens were getting healthcare subsidies or free healthcare because of the loose, just unfettered process that states were using to verify who was eligible for Medicaid.

“That’s not me. That’s not a Republican. So, the CBO said 2 million illegal aliens were getting care each year on the backs of American taxpayers. And I don’t know if that number’s perfectly accurate, but if it’s 1 million, is it 2 million or 3 million? Certainly, illegal aliens were getting free healthcare on the backs of American taxpayers.

“So when the Democrats want to go in there and gut that bill and end the fixes, the loopholes we closed, I don’t know how they can look us, look America in the eye and say that’s not the case. But regardless, I think that’s a small issue. I think that’s a red herring; that’s not really what the issue is. There’s just one more thing they can argue about to get America’s eyes off the true challenge within their own party.

“The Minority Leader says we’re not negotiating. I just think that’s such an untruth that we’re not negotiating. My gosh, the Appropriations Committee, Republican led Appropriations Committee has been negotiating since President Trump… well, actually, since we were sworn in in January. And just nothing but compliments to Senator Susan Collins and her team, and the Democrats on the Appropriations team. They’re doing their job.

“But Minority Leader Schumer wants to do this negotiation in the back door. He wants to continue the status quo, where, for the government funding, they go back in behind a door in a closed office, the cameras are off, and they want to cut a deal. You talked about the four corners up here, the Speaker of the House, the Minority Leader in the House, the Minority Leader in the Senate, and then the Majority Leader, the head of the Senate here, of course, John Thune. So Senator Schumer thinks they can go behind closed doors, and there are two New Yorkers in that room, and build all their bridges to nowhere.

“But Republicans want to fund the government in open daylight through the Appropriations Committee, with the lights on, and the cameras on. The Appropriations Committee passes legislation. There are 12 buckets of funding to fund this discretionary spending that Senate Republicans are trying to lead here. 12 buckets of funding. Again, under great leadership, they have passed eight of these 12 buckets out of Committee. Almost 90% of funding for the Federal Government, discretionary spending, again, of course, they’ve already finished the job.

“Senator Collins has done an incredible job getting it through the Committee. Bipartisan. When you look at the votes on these, on these bills, it’s like 25 to zero, 23 to two, 24 to one. Huge bipartisan victories done in the light of day. And then those should come here to the floor and let America see exactly what’s in them. And if there’s a bridge to nowhere in there, let me stand up here and offer an amendment to strike that funding. And then let that Senator defend why his or her State should have this bridge to nowhere. That’s what’s supposed to happen in the light of day.

“But Senator Schumer wants to go back to the Dark Ages, where he can go in a back room, a back New York room, and then cut a deal for all of his bridges to nowhere. The House, I believe, has passed all 12 of its funding bills out of Committee. Now we’ve got three of those across the floor. There are five more sitting there, but Senator Schumer refuses to release anybody on his side to vote for him, even though they voted for them in Committee. Why? It’s part of the political theater; he wants this shutdown.

“So I think, you know, America sees this that we want to to negotiate in in good faith, but Senator Schumer’s idea of negotiating is now to go behind closed doors where he’s one of four people in the room and then go tell the President, who was elected by 28 million people, and wants to tell him what to do.

“So… as we go through this process, I asked myself this morning, so what are AOC and the Squad, who are empowered by the liberal legacy media, asking Senator Schumer to do or really telling him what to do? What are AOC, the Squad, and the liberal media, what are they demanding from Senator Schumer?

“Well, they told him to take a hostage, right? So he did. He took a hostage. He took these Covid-era subsidies as hostage, and the $1.5 trillion of added funding as hostage. And now they’re asking them to shoot the hostage.

“So the Squad and Senator Schumer took the bait. They took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. Like jumping into Brier Rabbit’s briar patch. And guess what? They’re about to get mowed down like dry corn stalks in a Kansas tornado. They took the bait. They took the bait, empowering the White House to finally shrink the Federal Government. This monster of a beast that we have here, now.

“You know, when Joe Biden was sworn in in 2021, there were about 2.8 million Federal employees. So President Biden started, 2.8 million. By the time he finished, we had over 3 million Federal employees. Now, President Trump has kind of split the difference there, so we’re still not back to pre-Covid, pre-Biden levels of Federal employment.

“Look, I’m grateful for every Federal employee, and many of them do incredible work, but I think it’s no secret that we could all be a little more efficient. That we all could work a little harder. And if we had a few fewer regulations, I think we would need a few fewer Federal employees as well.

“I don’t want to be, you know, sound calloused or not caring. I’m grateful for every job an American has. But my goal would be to help move these people with some of these Federal jobs, and move them into the real world, and add to GDP, rather than subtract from GDP. That would be my goal. There’s a reasonable number of people we need to do the work of the Federal Government, but I just think that going from 2.8 million pre-COVID to over 3 million just seems to be too much.

“So like I said, you know, the Squad has led the Democrat party into Brier Rabbit’s briar patch, and they’re about to get mowed down like corn stalks in a Kansas Twister.

“I think the last thing I want to go back to here is the Democrats are saying that they really want to add $1.5 trillion to our debt. Again, we have $37 trillion of national debt.

“Now, as a nation, we’re spending almost $3 billion a day on interest. That’s right, America. $3 billion a day on interest alone. A trillion dollars a year. And they want to add $1.5 trillion to our national debt. But get this. In November of last year, America rejected that plan. Okay? That’s why the voters gave Republicans the White House, the House, and the Senate. They didn’t want us to borrow another $1.5 trillion.

“So what’s motivating the Squad? What’s motivating Senator Schumer to do this, to shut down the government? What’s motivating their lust for power and their control of the American people? You know, I think the Socialists have always thought, if you control healthcare, that’s the first step in controlling the people, right? So what’s motivating them?

“I think number one is, let’s just be frank here, it’s Trump Derangement Syndrome. I think that’s their number one motivation to shut the government down is Trump Derangement Syndrome. They have a hatred for President Trump that I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life.

“I think the second reason is that the liberal left has not realized they lost the election. You know, you go through these stages of grief, and denial is the first one. The Liberals still have not realized they lost the election. 78 million people voted for Republicans to control the House, the Senate, and the White House. That they are rejecting the Democrats’ lust for power, to control Americans, to borrow from our grandchildren. So that’s their motivation.

“Look, if they want to change these policies, then go win the election. If you want to change the policies, go win the election. You know, I think back to 2020. And the Democrats had a sweep, right? The Democrats swept the elections in 2020, and they added $2 trillion a year of debt. So they grew the budget from about 5 trillion to $7 trillion overnight.

“But when it came to keeping the government open, the Republicans didn’t go back to them and say, hey, we’re going to keep the government open if you decrease your spending by $2 trillion a year. We didn’t take that hostage. We could have. We could have. Does that make sense, comparing the 2020 election to this election? The Democrats swept in 2020 they came in and added $2 trillion of spending.

“But over a dozen times, Republicans walked the plank and said, we’ll keep the government open. I wasn’t happy about that then. I’m not happy about it. Now. I’m not happy about the spending levels that we’re fighting for right now. I think that there’s way too much. If you want to continue your liberal, socialist policies, Democrats, go win an election. Go win an election. We came through with a bill for America to cut taxes, to grow jobs, and to make the government more efficient.

“And look what’s happening. You know, the gas prices are down, grocery prices are down. The border’s secure. All those types of things are happening under Republican leadership. We want to address the cost of healthcare. We truly do.

“I want to point out that we’re just not going to negotiate borrowing another $1.5 trillion or continuing to throw money at healthcare issues in order to keep the government open again. This is apples and oranges. We need to open the government back up.

“We need to fund the government for a couple of months, a clean CR, let Senator Collins and her team, working with Democrats, get that other 10% of funding across the finish line. In two months’ time, we can bring those bills to the floor in front of the American public, debate them, offer amendments, make Senators defend their bridges to nowhere, as I call them, and then continue the work on healthcare.

“And it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be painful. When $5 trillion is being spent on healthcare in this country every year, and all these big corporations are grabbing that money as it goes by their front desk. It’s not going to be easy to drive down the cost of healthcare, but we have to do it.

“To me, this is common sense. We’re asking the Democrats to vote for a clean CR based upon levels of spending that every Senate Democrat in here who was in office voted for just seven months ago. Seven months ago, every Democrat in here voted for these spending limits.

“Again, a dozen times under Joe Biden, Republicans walked that plank and kept the government open. I pledged to you, I pledge to every Democrat, no one’s going to work harder than I will to help solve this riddle for healthcare. I am focused on driving the cost of healthcare down. But at the end of the day, this shutdown keeps us from doing the real work of the people, from having real debates about the cost of healthcare, our national debt, our spending, all those things.

“During a shutdown, things freeze up here, and we can’t do the work that we need to do in our Committees to address these different problems. One of our Presidents once said this, and I’m going to quote him. I know that it’s said that one of the easiest things in the world is to give away somebody else’s money, but the government does not have money except the money it takes from people.

“And so every time we talk about spending money on this or that program, on healthcare or Covid subsidies, let’s remember that the government has no money except what it takes from the people. And the people know that, and they’re feeling it. They’re feeling the pain of the government taking so much money. That’s my quote. Go back to the President’s quote here, and the people are tired of big government taking all the money they earn. Boy, if you’re a Senator up here and you’re listing anybody back home, I think you understand folks back home are tired of big government taking all the money they can earn.

“So, I ask my friends across the aisle, and they truly are friends; they’re not enemies. There’s not a Democrat I would call an enemy. President Reagan said he had no political enemies, only political opponents. No different than we see gladiators on Sunday playing these football games, and at the end of the game, they’re shaking each other’s hands.

“Both parties should fight for what they think is right, but if we stay fixed on the goals, the common goals, working towards a balanced budget, keeping the government open, driving down the cost of healthcare, all these things, I bet most of us agree on those goals.

“But in the meantime, we need to keep the government open. We need to pass a clean CR again. Again, let’s let the Appropriations Committee continue its negotiation to do its job as we all work together up here. So as long as we stay on those same goals, those same goals of a, like I said, we want to keep the government open. We want to work towards a balanced budget. I want to fix healthcare. I want to fix the cost of healthcare.

“Anyone up here who agrees on those same goals, I’ll reach out my hand across the aisle, and I pledge that we’ll listen and work together in good faith. But for today, let’s pass a clean CR. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.”

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Contact: Payton Fuller