Trending Johnson: Dems Want $200B in Health Benefits to Illegals, Billions For Foreign Countries
As the government shutdown entered its 27th day, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson placed full responsibility on Democrats, accusing them of prolonging the financial hardship faced by millions of Americans. Speaking on Monday, Johnson criticized Democratic lawmakers for refusing to cooperate with Republican efforts to pass funding measures and reopen federal agencies.
“Day 27 means it’s almost been a full month since the Democrats shut down the government,” Johnson said. “And as we near the end of this month, the pain being felt by so many hard-working people around this country is very real and it gets worse with each passing day.”
The Speaker highlighted the widespread impact of the shutdown, noting that “1.4 million federal workers missed a full paycheck” the previous week, including thousands of employees deemed essential. “Those who are essential, for example, to keep the country safe — TSA agents we’ve discussed and air traffic controllers and Border Patrol and of course our troops,” Johnson said. “But so many of them now are going without pay.”
He added that the Trump Administration had “done everything possible to bend over backwards to try to find sources of funding within the federal government” to mitigate the effects of the shutdown, but acknowledged that it was becoming increasingly difficult.
“Every Republican in Congress wants to stop this madness desperately,” Johnson continued. “We have voted many times, over a dozen times, collectively 13 times to reopen the government, to keep it open and reopen it once the Democrats closed it.”
Johnson emphasized the challenge of passing any spending legislation without bipartisan support, explaining that “you need 60 votes in the Senate. We only have 53 Republicans.”
“The Democrats are the ones voting repeatedly to shut down the government,” he declared, accusing them of misleading the public. “They spent most of their time trying to distract the American people from the very simple truth.”