Senator Corey Booker Filibuster on reducing Senate floor tackle spending
Senator Cory Booker’s Senator Filibuster addressed the potential for government spending cuts from Medicaid to Social Security.
WASHINGTON – New Jersey Democratic Sen. Corey Booker cried out to his colleagues over a rare incident on the Senator’s floor this week, claiming that they “conspire” with President Donald Trump and that his party “needs to wake up.”
The exchange came on July 29th as Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, tried to move quickly through a package of bipartisan bills that would increase resources and funds for police departments and officers. Booker opposed the package and offered an amendment requiring the administration to allocate public safety subsidies without political bias.
It sparked the wrath of Cortez Masto. He complained that Booker had not raised any concerns when the bill was handed over from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which sat a few weeks ago. “This is ridiculous. This is an attempt to kill all of these bills,” she said.
“This is for me, an American Democrat issue. I’m happy to have Donald Trump pass this when he has leverage right now,” Booker said.
He also became a fierce repetition with Senator Amy Klobuchar of D-Minnesota. Booker said it was wrong to imply that police bills are not essential to his state.
“What I’m tired of is that the President of the United States is violating the Constitution, destroying our norms and traditions, and what the Democrats do,” he thundered on the Senate floor. “Do you want to obey? Do you allow him? Do you ask for scrap?”
“The Democrats need a wake-up call,” he said.
Democrats are split over how to organize effective resistance against Trump and break through the cracks of Magapopulism, as the party still recovers after the 2024 election loss. Booker and other progressive Democrats have urged their colleagues to speak up more about the administration.
“If we don’t stand as Democrats, we deserve to lose. But if we unite, if we stand strong, if we stand with others, if we say, if we stand up and say that, in a chorus of certainty that America, what this president is doing is wrong, then we will win,” Booker said.
In April, Booker gave a 25-hour marathon and five-minute speech on the Senate floor, opposing the Trump administration’s policies and actions. “These are not the usual times in America and should not be treated that way,” Booker said at the time.
