Washington, D.C. — The government shutdown entered another week Thursday with dueling press events on Capitol Hill that underscored the widening political divide over the federal budget and safety-net programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.
At a morning event flanked by members of the New York Republican delegation, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Democrats were “inflicting pain on the American people out of fear of their far-left base.” He blamed what he called the “Schumer Shutdown” on Senate Democrats, arguing that if five of them “voted to reopen the government, the suffering would end immediately.” Scalise cited testimony from veterans’ advocates and unions who he said were urging Democrats to support a “clean continuing resolution.”
Full remarks available from the House Majority Leader’s office.
Later in the day, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) stood alongside faith leader Bishop William J. Barber II and clergy from around the country, denouncing what they called “policy violence” from Republican-backed cuts to health and food programs. “This is not a partisan issue,” Jeffries said. “It’s a moral issue.” Speakers at the event included four low-income Americans describing how losing Medicaid or SNAP would affect their ability to survive. Barber said, “You cannot put your hand on the Bible, swear to uphold the Constitution, and then sit back and watch while millions lose healthcare and go hungry.”
Read the Democratic Leader’s release.
In television appearances that evening, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Republicans had already “voted 14 times to provide SNAP benefits, military pay, veterans’ health services, and nutrition assistance for young women, the disabled, and the elderly,” while Democrats had “voted 14 times to block all of that.” He argued that the House GOP’s continuing-resolution bills were “clean, nonpartisan” and accused Senate Democrats of capitulating to “the rise of the far-left Marxists in their party.”
Johnson’s interviews on CNN and Fox News are available here.
Each side claims to defend ordinary Americans from harm: Republicans insisting they are fighting to reopen the government and fund safety-net programs, Democrats portraying GOP proposals as attempts to strip away healthcare and food assistance. With both chambers now dug in, pressure is mounting from across America to break the impasse before more benefits lapse and impacts broaden.
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