Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), and Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) to discuss how Democrats are putting their far-left base over the needs of the American people, how Senate Democrats could end the shutdown today, and the absurdity of Democrats making the American people suffer to prove a political point. While Chuck Schumer is preoccupied with appeasing the far left to keep his job, Leader Scalise urged him to think about the thousands of Americans whose jobs the shutdown affects.
 
On Chuck Schumer putting his political base ahead of the American people:

“It was Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries who chose to take their toys and go home, all to appease the most radical elements of the far left, because Chuck Schumer is more concerned about his political job than he is about the jobs of millions of American families. American families' lives are at stake here. Whether or not we're going to be able to pay our troops, whether or not people can get on an airplane and go visit a relative or take a vacation, whatever their plans may have been, are being disrupted. Real lives of real people are being disrupted so that Chuck Schumer can show the far-left Marxists in his party that he’s having some kind of tantrum and fighting Donald Trump because he's afraid of the far-left part of his political base.”

On Democrats holding hardworking Americans hostage:
 
“A lot of people say, ‘What is this really about?’ Obviously, you see Democrats trying to make it about things that have nothing to do with the basic funding of government, the bill that we passed here in this House just a few weeks ago. In fact, a lot of Democrats are having buyer's remorse, but every one of us has a voting card. Weeks ago, Republicans and Democrats in the House had an opportunity to put this voting card in a machine and tell the American people where they stand on a government shutdown. And 99% of House Republicans voted ‘yes’ to keep the government open while we negotiate our differences. And 99% of Democrats voted ‘no’ to shut the government down. Some of them are having buyer's remorse, and I don't blame them. They're now realizing the dire consequences that their ‘no’ vote caused to real families across America. Some of them are begging the Speaker, ‘Please bring us back in so they can get another shot at this.’ You don't get a do-over. They picked the wrong side. They voted to shut the government down. They failed the test. But the good news is they can get bailed out by the Senate. If they really want to solve these problems, if they really want to make sure our troops get paid, which, by the way, we voted for, they voted against, they can call their two Democrat senators who have five times voted to shut the government down and say, ‘Today's the day you can make amends. Today's the day you can open the government up.’”

On Senate Democrats’ political games:

“Let me tell you what another senator just said yesterday about why this shutdown is going on. He said, this is a Democrat senator yesterday, ‘The point of this shutdown is not just suffering for suffering's sake, but to make a point.’ So you even have Democrat senators admitting that they're imposing suffering on the American people, but they just want to make a point? My God, millions of lives are at stake. They know they're inflicting suffering on the American people, so they can make some kind of point. If you want to have a tantrum, this is not the third grade. This is the lives of American people. Real lives are at stake, real careers and families. Will they be able to pay their house note come the 15th? That's at stake, the safety of our air traffic control system. So that some senator that wants to have a tantrum can make a point.
 
“I think the American people are getting sick of this charade that's going on. They know what the Democrats in the House did to shut the government down. But they also know that just [five] senators doing the right thing can turn this around and open the government back up again. And yes, we have big differences on a lot of things that we need to be negotiating on. All those bills that Chairman Cole and his appropriators sent out of committee, you can't have those negotiations while you're in a shutdown. And they know that, but they don't mind inflicting suffering on the American people because they want to make a point.”

On the hypocrisy of the Democrat party:

“The Maryland delegation of Democrats held a press conference just days ago talking about how bad a shutdown will be for the state of Maryland. They're right. The irony is they're the ones who voted to shut it down. Over [150,000] employees in the state of Maryland alone will be hurt, and their own Democrat delegation is saying how bad it's going to be, yet they're the ones who voted to inflict that suffering on the people of Maryland. This madness can end. This madness needs to end with sanity finally emerging. Bring some common sense in. Chuck Schumer, if you can't do the right thing because you're so afraid of your political job, think about the jobs of millions of families out there who don't want to have that suffering inflicted on them.”

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