Florida Parish News

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) appeared on Fox Business Network's "Mornings with Maria" to discuss the ongoing government shutdown and its impact on American families. During the interview, Scalise criticized Senate Democrats, claiming their actions are causing harm to millions of Americans.

“Look, this shutdown by Democrats have caused already dramatic pain to real families, and it's going to get worse. You see the SNAP benefits: that's 42 million people that are going to be going without food because Democrats are just angry at the election of Donald Trump. Donald Trump is delivering on all the things he said he would do. The far left has gotten even more nutty. You look, they're about to elect Mamdani as the mayor of New York City, an avowed socialist Marxist. That's where their party is going, and that's who Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are trying to appease. They don't care about the American people. They've said they know they're inflicting suffering on families. Democrats have said that openly, and they said they don't care, they just want leverage. They can't say what they want leverage for. That's really the worst part of this. They're hurting families knowingly, and Democrats still want to keep this going. I don't think it's sustainable because the American people have figured it out. They're disgusted by it.”

Scalise also discussed efforts by House Republicans to reduce health care premiums for families through legislative measures such as cost-sharing reductions included in a reconciliation bill passed by the House.

“We had a provision called cost-sharing reductions in the reconciliation bill. It passed the House. It was scored by the CBO to lower premiums by 11% on families. You would get 11% lower premium in your renewal if you're a family under our bill. Democrats are the ones who went and fought it in the Senate. They had it removed in the Senate. Democrats have never cared about lowering premiums. But those good ideas are still out there. PBM reform is something we had passed last year. We have other ideas, too. Pulling together health savings accounts, small businesses pulling together to lower premiums. Again, every time we've come together, all of our committees of jurisdiction, we've put ideas on the table that focus on lowering premiums, and Democrats have never wanted to be a part of that conversation, unfortunately.

“They named it the Affordable Care Act. You should always watch when Democrats name something, the Inflation Reduction Act. Remember that under Biden? Inflation Reduction Act dramatically increased inflation. The Affordable Care Act is unaffordable health care for families. And by the way, it's broken up the doctor-patient relationship. So all these states that want more bailouts, insurance companies that are seeing record profits, and want more bailouts. Interesting that the Democrat Party is the one fighting to get those bailouts to those insurance companies while families pay more in premiums.”

On trade policy under President Trump compared with President Biden’s administration, Scalise stated:

“I think if you look at what the President has done with tariffs, it's helped America get better deals overall and be treated fairly. There are a lot of countries, friend and foe alike, who have not treated America fairly in trade deals. China has been the worst offender because they manipulate their currency. They do a lot of other things, steal intellectual property. But even our friendly nations have had the same problems. And so what President Trump has done with tariffs so far is open up markets. A lot more American goods are available now in other countries because of these tariffs.And then we're ultimately getting to a stabilized,I think ,level where you're seeing ,look at Asia.I mean,it wasn't just China .China was massive ,not only for what it meant for critical minerals ,what it meant for our farmers ,for soybeans ,the fentanyl agreement .But there were other Asian nations ,too ,that he got deals with .

“He's working on European deals to get better deals ,Canada,Mexico .This President doesn't rest .He's amazing at how much he delivers for the American people .Oh,and by the way ,he's working on global peace in Middle East,in Ukraine,in Russia .That's what President Trump does .He delivers on what he said he would do .And sadly,the left is going nuts because of that.They don't want to celebrate success for America and rest of country is watching in disbelief at meltdown of Democrat Party.”

Steve Scalise represents Louisiana’s 1st district in Congress after replacing Bobby Jindal in 2008 [source]. He has served continuously since then [source]. Born in New Orleans in 1965 and currently residing in Jefferson [source], Scalise holds a Bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University.