Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Administrator of the Small Business Administration Kelly Loeffler, and House Committee on Small Business Chairman Roger Williams (R-Texas) to discuss Democrats using hardworking families as leverage during the Schumer Shutdown. Leader Scalise warned about the dire consequences that millions of Americans will feel when programs like SNAP and WIC run out of funding at the end of this week.
 
Excerpts from Leader Scalise's remarks:

On why Democrats shut down the government:

“Unfortunately, as Administrator Loeffler pointed out, those small businesses are struggling like millions of families all across America. Why? So that the Democrats can get leverage. Who knows who they want leverage over? They can't articulate it. They've laid out a $1.5 trillion wishlist of crazy items like giving taxpayer-funded health care to illegals. In their bill to give that taxpayer funding to illegals, they actually gut rural health care. Democrats gut $50 billion out of rural health care. They want to talk about health care? They're the ones making it harder. And of course, they don't want anybody to remember facts: Facts like when we moved the Working Families Tax Cut through this Congress, unfortunately, not a single Democrat wanted to support that because it involved preventing a tax increase. The party that's now gone all the way over full bore into socialism.”

On Americans in need suffering because of the Schumer Shutdown:

“[Democrats] really told you what it's about – it's about getting leverage, showing off to their radical Marxist socialist base that they're fighting Donald Trump because they're still angry about the results of the November election. And in the meantime, real families are struggling. Every day, the number grows higher. Yesterday, Senator Gallego went on Meet the Press, and he was asked when Democrats would reopen the government. And he said, 'I'm not looking at a timetable. I'm looking at everyone's personal pocketbooks.' Now, Senator Gallego, you ought to be looking at the pocketbooks of those single moms who right now are facing losing their WIC payments, facing losing their SNAP payments. If Senator Gallego is not sure how many people that is, we've been told by the administration how many people will stand to lose real benefits — SNAP benefits, food stamps for kids – 42 million people will lose those benefits in just a few days. 

“Senator Gallego, look at their pocketbooks. WIC, Women, Infants, and Children program, helps feed seven million low-income moms and infants. Senator, go look at those pocketbooks. And who knows what your real motivation is. But I'll tell you what their motivation is. Their motivation is just to put food on their table for their kids. And every Republican in the House and Senate voted, yes, to put that food on the table. And Democrats keep voting, no, they keep voting to shut the government down. And it's having an impact on millions of people.”

On Democrats hurting federal employees:

“Just today, the American Federation of Government Employees, a large union, came out and said, 'It's time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures and no gamesmanship.' And the union went on to say today, 'Because when the folks who serve this country are standing in line for food banks after missing a second paycheck because of this shutdown, they aren't looking for partisan spin. They're looking for the wages they earned. The fact that they're being cheated out of it is a national disgrace.’ And they're right. It's a national disgrace what Democrats are doing to good, hardworking people, to women, infants, and children who are just looking to this town and saying, what are these Democrats doing? What happened to your father's Democrat Party? It's a mirage of what it used to be because the socialists have taken over. This is what Marxism and Socialism looks like: Government workers standing in food bank lines, children going without food, and Head Start nutrition programs, so that Democrats can use you as leverage. It's a national disgrace, and it needs to end now. We stand ready to get that job done. We voted to get that job done. It's time they stop playing this game that's harming millions of people.”

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