Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steve Scalise (1st District of Louisiana)
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) spoke on the House floor ahead of House Republicans’ vote to reopen the government, as Democrats continue to placate their radical base and hold Americans hostage. Leader Scalise emphasized that it’s past time to bring the Democrat-imposed suffering to an end.
Click here or the image above to view Leader Scalise’s full remarks.
Leader Scalise’s remarks:“Thank my friend, the chairman of the appropriations, Mr. Cole from Oklahoma, for not only yielding, but for bringing this important bill to the floor. Our appropriators worked tirelessly to negotiate a multi-bill package that is part of this bill to reopen the government.“We never should have been here, Mr. Speaker. We tried as Republicans over a month ago to prevent a government shutdown. We had a vote here on the House floor. 99% of Republicans voted to keep the government open, and 99% of Democrats voted to shut it down. Then that bill went over to the Senate, and we watched for 42 days, where time and time again, Democrats, just to appease their most radical base, continued to vote in unison to shut the government down. During that shutdown, we saw millions of families experience pain, Mr. Speaker. Pain and suffering that Democrats themselves acknowledged that they imposed on the American people. But they said over and over again, we have quote after quote from Democrats during the shutdown that they needed to impose the suffering to get leverage, Mr. Speaker, to use the American people as pawns to get leverage for what?“They ultimately filed an alternative bill, a $1.5 trillion mad spending spree that included things like $200 billion of taxpayer funding for illegals to get taxpayer benefits while they gutted the $50 billion rural health care fund that we put in place in the Working Families Tax Cut. So, Mr. Speaker, anybody who comes up here and says they care about health care, they were also advocating to gut the $50 billion rural health care fund to provide $200 billion in taxpayer-funded health care benefits for illegals. It’s insanity. If you really want to look at where this all began, as some on the other side, Democrats want to talk about a health care crisis, the health care law of the land is what many refer to as Obamacare. But let’s remember the original name that Democrats gave that bill when they created it. They called it the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act. Only Democrats voted for it. Republicans knew it was going to be anything but affordable. It was going to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. Unfortunately, it’s done that.“If you want to talk about affordable, maybe the only other bill that’s more laughable in its name is the Inflation Reduction Act. Yeah, that’s another product brought to you by Democrat-only votes. The Inflation Reduction Act, which ushered in the inflation under Joe Biden that we’re still trying to shake today. But the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Speaker, since it started, Americans have seen over 80% increases in their health care costs because of a Democrat-created bill that they want to now blame on Republicans. I understand why they would want to try to now pawn that off on somebody else. But then if you look over time, during COVID, they created a temporary relief fund, not to individuals, Mr. Speaker, but to insurance companies. Democrats created a temporary, they called it temporary in the law, temporary COVID relief tax credit to insurance companies, to bail out big insurance companies who are seeing record profits, and that’s now what they want Republicans to renew. An insurance company bailout that Democrats created to be temporary. They set it up to expire. Now they’re saying that the world’s going to end if that insurance company bailout doesn’t get renewed.“While at the same time, when we as Republicans worked to actually lower premiums for families, they fought it every step of the way. That’s right. We had a bill that we passed through this House just a few months ago in the Working Families Tax [Act]. Part of that bill was called the cost-sharing reduction. Was scored by the CBO to lower premiums for families by over 12%. And what happened? It gets over… by the way, every Democrat goes against that, too, because they never cared about lowering premiums. Then that bill gets over to Senate. Senate Democrats worked overtime to get that provision removed. And if you go look at Senate Democrat Budget Committee website, they still bragged that they removed that provision that would have lowered premiums for families. Absolutely, Republicans have worked, and will continue, by the way, to work to lower premiums for families. But make no mistake, the high premiums that everybody faces today are a result of the inaptly named Affordable Care Act and the many failures associated with it.“This bill today is about ending the misery Democrats created on families. That is just about funding the government, not about solving other problems that we should be working to solve, but about getting the government back open while not holding the American people hostage. That, Mr. Speaker, is what has disgusted the American people most during this shutdown, that should have never happened, but it’s that it is caused real suffering for American families. Our men and women in uniform that had to wonder whether or not they’re going to get paid. The air traffic controllers who already had a highly stressful job and then had to show up for work without getting paid. Multiple paychecks missed. Now you’re seeing because a lot of those air traffic controllers have to go work jobs as Uber drivers. They aren’t even being able to show up for work because they still have bills due, their rents due. They’re trying to put food on their table, and Democrats want to vote no tonight to keep denying them food. The 42 million SNAP recipients, those people that are low income that need those food benefits. If you vote no today, you are voting to deny those 42 million low-income families basic food needs. Don’t talk about how much you care about low-income people and vote no tonight to deny them food, basic services, basic things that American families need who shouldn’t be part of the leverage Democrats want to show their radical base that they’re fighting Donald Trump because they’re upset with the results of the election from November.“It is time to end this madness, Mr. Speaker. Let’s get this government back open. Let’s go negotiate our differences, which are many, but let’s do it while not continuing to hold the American people hostage. I urge my Democrat colleagues who have voted relentlessly to shut this government down and impose suffering on the American people to stop. Stop imposing the suffering. Let’s open the government. Let’s get back to the work of the American people.”