Florida Parish News

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined other Republican leaders in Washington, D.C., to criticize Senate Democrats for their role in the ongoing government shutdown. Speaking alongside Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), and Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.), Scalise accused Democrats of prioritizing their political base over the needs of American families.

Scalise addressed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer directly, saying, “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.”

He further argued that Democrats were responsible for holding up government funding: “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.’”

Scalise also referenced comments from an unnamed Democratic senator regarding motivations behind continuing with a shutdown: “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...”

He criticized Maryland’s Democratic delegation as well: “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... This madness needs to end with sanity finally emerging.”

Steve Scalise has represented Louisiana’s 1st district in Congress since 2008 after succeeding Bobby Jindal; before his time in Congress he served both in Louisiana’s House and Senate between 1996 and 2008 [https://www.congress.gov/member/steve-scalise/S001176]. Born in New Orleans in 1965 and currently residing in Jefferson Parish [https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/S001176], Scalise holds a Bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University.