“We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats,” the letter says. “They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”
The government has been closed since October 1 because Democrats wouldn’t agree to a spending bill that didn’t include some health care subsidies. Republicans say that Democrats want the American people to pay for health care for illegal immigrants.
About 42 million Americans get SNAP payments, which are often known as food stamps.
Government statistics show that SNAP helped around 41.7 million people each month in 2024. The federal government spent almost $100 billion on SNAP, and the average user got $187.20 in benefits each month.
President Trump is working to make sure that the U.S. military keeps getting paid while the government is shut down. He signed an executive order telling the Pentagon to use extra money to pay salaries in the meantime.
Reports say that Timothy Mellon, a millionaire railroad mogul and scion to the famous banking and political Mellon dynasty, sent Trump a $130 million donation from a “patriotic friend.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that Democrats bear the blame for the pain of a government shutdown, as President Trump and his budget chief moved forward with identifying federal programs to cut.
“They’ve tried to say this is a fight about health care or this or that or any other thing. And it’s — it’s very simple. They put this on paper. They made this their demand in writing in the record of the Senate. And it has not changed,” he said.
“This is what the Democrats in the Senate are demanding to reopen the government. They want to give $200 billion in health benefits to illegal aliens and noncitizens paid for by U.S. taxpayers. That is in their proposal. They want billions in wasteful programs to be returned to foreign countries,” he added.
The Speaker concluded, “They want to turn it all back on. They’re demanding that we do all that to get the government open for hardworking Americans again. They want to give a half a billion to left leaning news news organizations and — and they want to cut $50 billion from rural hospitals. We cannot, we will not do those things. And they know that very well.”
“Day 27 means it’s almost been a full month since the Democrats shut down the government. 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. Here’s some of the stats. Last week, 1.4 million federal workers missed a full paycheck. Now, you know, many of them are furloughed and many more are deemed essential workers,” Johnson said.
“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. But so many of them now are going without pay. The families of military service members and air traffic controllers and so many of these others are now at very real risk of missing the paycheck at the end of this month,” Johnson added.
