Florida Parish News

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) addressed the media in Washington, D.C., alongside Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), to respond to statements made by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer regarding responsibility for the ongoing government shutdown.

Scalise criticized Schumer’s recent comments on health care costs and nutrition assistance programs. “Over the weekend, Chuck Schumer tweeted out, 'Republicans have done everything in their power to raise your health care costs and kill SNAP for millions of hungry Americans.' Now, Chuck Schumer knows good and well what he said there is not only misleading, it's patently false," Scalise said.

Addressing health care costs, Scalise stated: “Let's start with the first half of what he said there, raising health care costs. Who is the party that's done that? The health care law of the land, and not sure if Chuck Schumer has been updated on the law, but Obamacare is the law of the land in health care. And we can all go look at the votes going back the last 10 years. It's been partisan votes all the way through for Obamacare. They called it, as the Speaker said, they named it the Affordable Care Act. It's been anything but.

“Costs for families are up over 80% in their premiums because of Obamacare. And what have they tried to do over and over again? They've tried to mask the cost. They haven't tried to work with Republicans to fix it. They've tried to mask the cost, hundreds of billions of dollars of bailouts to insurance companies, not helping families get better options. Democrats have never cared about that. And in fact, when we, as we pointed out multiple times, passed provisions in the Working Families Tax Cuts, the cost-share reductions that were scored by CBO to lower premiums by double digits for families, it passed the House, and it was Democrats who worked overtime to get that removed in the Senate. They are still bragging about it today on the Democrat Budget Committee's website that they removed a provision that would have lowered premiums for families.

“So who is it that's raising costs for families? Of course, it's been Democrats every step of the way, and the only thing scored by CBO to reduce premiums on families that have passed either House, the Democrats worked overtime to get that removed.”

On nutrition assistance programs such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Scalise commented: “The other half of that, [Schumer] talks about SNAP. And of course, we know there have been votes in the House and Senate to save the SNAP program from cuts, from being zeroed out. It's called the clean CR. Passed the House with Republican-only votes, primarily with Democrats uniting to try to kill it. But luckily, we have the majority in the House, and you go over to the Senate, and we know they have a 60-vote requirement, and Democrats have over and over and over again voted in lockstep with Chuck Schumer to block SNAP benefits. There is a vote you can go look at every day that they've taken that vote that would have opened the government fully funded SNAP or shut it down. And it's Republicans who are voting yes and it's Democrats who are voting no. Chuck Schumer has been leading that charge. And then he votes no to kill the SNAP program—to create tremendous uncertainty—to create millions of hungry Americans—to use his own word—Chuck Schumer has voted to put those millions of hungry Americans in that situation. And then he walks out to microphone—as Speaker said—and then he tries blame it on somebody else.”

Scalise further asserted: “It is votes in Congress that have caused a government shutdown. That's why we're here. You either vote yes to open government or you vote no keep it shut down... The American people will not be lied to... It's time that Chuck Schumer and his Democrat colleagues end this madness... Let's open government back up again and get negotiation on differences we have.”

Steve Scalise currently serves as U.S Representative for Louisiana’s 1st district after replacing Bobby Jindal in 2008 https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/S001176. He previously served both in Louisiana’s House of Representatives from 1996-2008 and briefly in its Senate https://scalise.house.gov/about/full-biography. Born in New Orleans in 1965 https://www.nola.com/news/politics/steve-scalises-life-and-career-in-pictures/article_8c29e3d2-e28b-11ee-b70d-cf99ceab9d57.html, Scalise lives in Jefferson Parish today; he graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor’s degree.