Pete Ricketts: “well, here we are again. I am looking at a floor where there is nobody on it. In fact, we haven't even taken a vote…”

“well, here we are again. I am looking at a floor where there is nobody on it. In fact, we haven't even taken a vote today. It has been 7 weeks since our last government shutdown face-off, and nobody is here. Folks, we have very serious problems facing our country. We have an open border. It is a humanitarian and security crisis. We have $34 trillion in debt. Let me put that in perspective. That is about $256,000 for everybody in this country. And that is roughly the cost of a second mortgage for people in Nebraska. So it is like you own your own home, and now you have another home on top of that--only it is not a home; it is your Federal debt. And, of course, we are facing another government shutdown because we have not passed a budget. When I was Governor of Nebraska, one of the things I told my team is that passing a budget is our most important thing we do: We fund the government. We would get involved 6 months before. We would give our budget to the legislature to start working on that budget. Now, let me tell you how it is supposed to work here in the U.S. Senate. We are supposed to pass 12 appropriations bills. For the first time in 5 years, the Senate Appropriations Committee indeed passed 12 appropriations bills before the August recess--first time in 5 years before the August recess. Two came out June 22. The other 10 came out in July. And yet, for months, our leader sat on those appropriations bills. We did not vote on them. We did nothing.…”