Scalise: Hardworking Americans Paying the Price for Schumer's Shutdown

Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) to discuss the radical shift in the Democrat party and Chuck Schumer’s efforts to appease extreme leftists by holding the government hostage. Leader Scalise emphasized the pain Democrats’ shutdown is imposing, pointing to local food banks in Southeast Louisiana that are struggling under growing demand as federal employees miss paychecks.
 
On the radical direction of the Democrat party:

“Chairman Rogers just laid out some of the dire consequences that are happening today because Chuck Schumer decided to shut down the government. A lot of people ask, ‘What's the off-ramp?’ Especially, they ask, what changed in Chuck Schumer from just a few months ago, back in March, when Chuck Schumer voted for these very same funding levels? Chuck Schumer himself voted for these funding levels in March, and today he's shutting the entire government down, jeopardizing America's national security over those same levels. And so, what changed?

“I think you don't need to look any further than what you saw on the stage in New York last night, a debate between the leading candidates for mayor of New York to see how far Chuck Schumer's party has moved to the socialist left. When you see Mamdani, who's the leading candidate, and by all accounts, is going to win going away for mayor of New York, has taken over the Democrat Party in the state of New York. And his main opponent on that stage – there is no bench in the Democrat Party – it was disgraced former Governor Cuomo, who was run out of office for, among other things, instituting policies during COVID that led to the death of thousands of senior citizens. That's the best that the Democrat Party has to offer in the city of New York.”

On Chuck Schumer placating his far-left base for political gain:

“So, Chuck Schumer is watching all of this and recognizing that from March till today, his own party has moved so far in the socialist left that he's now afraid for his own political future. And to try to hold on and grasp one last ounce of power for himself, he's willing to jeopardize millions of American families. And that is who is paying the consequence for Chuck Schumer's actions, for the tantrum that he's having.

“He is more concerned, as the Speaker pointed out, at impressing the Hate America rally crowd that's coming up here tomorrow than he is about solving all of our problems. If he voted today to open up the government, it wouldn't solve our differences. We all know we have big differences. We have three appropriations bills that are in a conference committee that, frankly, Republicans and Democrats on those committees had already worked out the differences. It was Chuck Schumer who walked away back then a few weeks ago and decided then he was going to shut the government down. Not because we had really big differences on those policies, but because he needed to appease the radical base that had taken over his own party.”

On federal employees missing paychecks:

“Maybe as Chuck Schumer starts realizing the consequences of his actions, and maybe it's the people that are holding Chuck Schumer hostage that we need to make an appeal to, to release Chuck Schumer so he can release the American people. But over and over again, we're going to keep talking about the damage that Chuck Schumer's actions in shutting down the government are causing on real people. Our men and women in uniform, yes, President Trump was able to stave off for a few more weeks by finding money to pay for them. But as Chairman Rogers pointed out, that account's about to go dry. But there are other federal employees that were not able to get paid just in this most recent pay schedule.”

On the Democrat shutdown’s impact on Southeast Louisiana:

“My local media outlet, WWL-TV, just did a story today that went live about the consequences to those federal employees. We're talking about thousands of people just in Southeast Louisiana. Maybe Chuck Schumer doesn't care about those people, but his party is causing pain through a lot of corners of this country. I want to read a quote from the director of the food bank in the New Orleans area. He said, ‘Demand is up, supply is down, and now we're getting hammered by the fallout from the government shutdown as more and more people who may have been expecting to get that paycheck to buy groceries, so now they'll come to us or one of our 500 partners to get food assistance.’ That was the Chief Strategy Officer of Second Harvest Food Bank in New Orleans, just representing one area of the country where thousands of federal workers can't even afford to buy groceries and are going to a local food bank so that Chuck Schumer can appease the most radical socialists in his party. This is affecting real people.

“There's a bill that, again, doesn't solve all of our differences, but just allows those people to be freed so that they can get back to work, they can get their paychecks, they can provide food for their family while we negotiate those differences for another few weeks. It's time for Chuck Schumer to end this madness. There's a bill to open the government. Let's go solve our differences, negotiate our differences. But in the meantime, stop holding the American people hostage, Chuck Schumer.”

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