TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

On 2026-01-07, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) delivered a floor speech titled "TRUMP ADMINISTRATION" in the Senate. The speech addressed healthcare and also covered the economy, taxes. It referenced legislation including S67, S69, S68.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 4 (Wednesday, January 7, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 4 (Wednesday, January 7, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S67-S69] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] TRUMP ADMINISTRATION Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, we are back for a short workweek, following the holidays, and, boy, is our plate full. But I think it is appropriate to take just a few minutes to reflect on the incredible progress we have made last year under the leadership of President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Thune, and Speaker Mike Johnson. Of course, one of the most important things we had to do in the Senate was to confirm the President's Cabinet and various nominees. Of course, our Democratic colleagues resisted at every turn, requiring that we actually change some of the rules of confirmation to allow the President to fulfill his mandate following his election and to get his team on the field. Democrats not only were sore losers when it came to the election of President Trump, but they wanted to deny him the team he needed in order to actually do what the American people elected him to do. The most important piece of legislation we passed--actually, there are a couple that come to mind, but one is the working family tax cuts act. I heard the Democratic leader talk about all sorts of ``affordability'' issues, and, of course, that has now become the buzzword. Affordability is really nothing new in politics, as the Presiding Officer knows. It is all about kitchen table issues. That is what people care the most about. And there are a lot of things that we have already done, without any Democratic help, to try to make life more affordable for working families in Texas, in Nebraska, and across the Nation. But, obviously, we have a lot of work left to do. First, we have to finish a full year of government funding. Democrats have prevented us from passing normal appropriations bills, which have caused us to lurch from potential shutdown to shutdown. And, indeed, they ultimately pulled that trigger to the detriment of the American people and shut down the government for a historically long period of time. And for what effect? Well, a lot of people got hurt. A lot of people got inconvenienced. Many people didn't get paid. And what did the Democrats get? A talking point about healthcare. That is all they care about. They did not care about solving any of these problems, working together in a bipartisan way, which is what I believe we should do, but rather to try to score political points and try to embarrass the Trump administration and Republicans. But we have to finish that full year of funding because we do have another short-term continuing resolution deadline that expires on January 30. But I know Senator Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Senator Murray and their counterparts in the House have been working very diligently to try to get the first tranche of appropriations bills across the floor so we can avoid staring another government shutdown in the face on January 30. Can you imagine how much actual work we could get done if we didn't exhaust ourselves in the fights over shutdowns and lurching from one deadline to the next? Well, maybe that is something we ought to think about, and that is the opportunity cost of going from shutdown to shutdown and all the spending cliffs. I would hope our Democratic colleagues have learned a lesson from [[Page S68]] their last misadventure, which resulted in the shutdown, and I hope they will spare the American people and a lot of folks who didn't get paid, who were inconvenienced, and for no real reason other than to provide them a talking point in the upcoming election. Again, we are happy to solve problems--that is why we serve here--and even on a bipartisan basis, but we are not interested in government shutdowns, which do nothing but try to advantage the Democratic Party in pursuing a talking point leading to the midterm elections. We have a lot of things to do between now and November of 2026. On the healthcare front, we offered an alternative to the disaster known as ObamaCare. There is incredible fraud against U.S. taxpayers in the ObamaCare subsidy regime and, particularly, the enhanced subsidies that were bumped up during the Inflation Reduction Act as part of the COVID era. But, unfortunately, insurance companies got rich, and the American people were not well served when it came to access to their healthcare. And the taxpayers were positively gouged by the fraud and mischief that occurred under the ObamaCare enhanced subsidy regime. We offered an alternative. President Trump said the money shouldn't go to insurance companies; it ought to go to the consumer, because who knows better than the consumer what they actually need in terms of their health insurance coverage. But, of course, our Democratic colleagues wouldn't countenance that. They don't actually believe in consumer choice. They don't believe in free enterprise. What they believe in is more government, more expensive government, and we know that is not the answer to the challenges that face working families when it comes to access to healthcare. Having choice to make a decision, not making young people subsidize old people, not making people buy something they don't need, and not foisting the bill on taxpayers by extravagant subsidies which do nothing but enrich insurance companies. Well, we know we have got a lot of work to do in that area, and we stand ready to work in good faith to come up with a workable bipartisan solution that will lower the cost of healthcare in the long term, if our Democratic colleagues are willing. Suffice it to say, we have our work cut out for us, though, in the Senate. While this year has barely started, President Trump has lost no time in defining the year with his usual strength and decisiveness. You know, back in the Federalist Papers, they debated what the Office of President should look like. And one of the things they talked about is the need for an energetic President and head of the executive branch. And, I must say, that is exactly what we got with the election of Donald J. Trump to his second term of office--a President who does what he says and is willing and has the courage to act decisively in the face of various threats. And, of course, the one that is now looming large is Operation Absolute Resolve. This past weekend, in the middle of the night, in Caracas, Venezuela, our brave servicemembers successfully accompanied law enforcement personnel in detaining the illegitimate President of Venezuela, someone who had become the head of a drug cartel and who was working with our most concerning adversaries all around the world, whether it is Cuba, whether it is Iran, whether it is Russia or China. And, in fact, Venezuela had become a hub for illegal drug trafficking, along with everything else that goes with that. And it also had become a foothold for Iranian terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and was using the money they were able to raise from illicit drug trafficking to then send it to terrorist organizations in the Middle East and to threaten peace around the world. I want to say that what we saw demonstrated by the U.S. military, working in cooperation with the intelligence community and the Department of Justice and law enforcement personnel, was nothing short of magnificent. It gives me a great deal of pride to know that only the United States could have pulled off such an operation and brought someone so despicable as Nicolas Maduro to justice in a Federal court in Manhattan. I wanted to thank all of our personnel who participated in the operation. I hope and wish and pray for the speedy recovery of the handful who were injured, and I think it is a proud day for the United States. It was a challenging decision, I am sure, to make, and there will be many hard days ahead as Venezuela has to correct its course of actions. And under President Rodriguez, hopefully, with the levers that are available to the Trump administration and our friends and allies, they will learn from some of their mistakes and allow a transitional government, which will then be able to represent the hopes and the dreams and the aspirations of the Venezuelan people. President Trump's New Year's message to friends and enemies could not be more clear. American strength is back, and we will stop at nothing to ensure that the American people are safe from foreign threats and especially here in our own hemisphere. Walter Russell Meade put it well when he recently wrote: The operation was a dazzling and magnificent act, and the competence and resolve that it demonstrated will do more to shore up American power and world peace than all the best speeches President Obama ever made. President Trump has made it clear to dictators around the world that if they try their hands at making mischief, there will be consequences. And I can guarantee that the illegitimate heads of the governments of Nicaragua, Cuba, and others in the region took note of what the U.S. Government is capable of doing if it is determined to do so under the leadership of a decisive, energetic President like President Trump. And I think it sends an enormous message of deterrence to adversaries around the world and potential adversaries like China, North Korea, Iran, Russia. When they see a demonstration of competence and professionalism that is really second to none in the world, I think it sends an enormous message of deterrence and helps make our country safer and helps keep the peace. But, of course, this represents a stark contrast with the status quo under the previous administration. I think that is one of the things that makes this so startling to so many people. After all the words with no action, all the breast-beating about America under President Biden, to see what President Trump is able to do, with the incredible contributions