We’re now entering the third week of what Speaker Mike Johnson rightly calls “the Democrat government shutdown.” Two full weeks of Washington theater, except this time, the show’s on your dime, and the plot is so absurd it would make a Babylon Bee headline blush. Watch the full presser here.
READ MORE: D.C. Tourists Being Hit by Schumer Shutdown As Mike Johnson Pulls No Punches on Dems' Insane Demands
The Democrat demand sheet for reopening the government reads less like a budget proposal and more like the syllabus for a gender studies class at Berkeley. Johnson laid it out plain: To turn the lights back on, Democrats want to spend $3.9 million on “LGBTQI+ democracy grants” in the Western Balkans. Because nothing says “essential American governance” like teaching Balkan bureaucrats about pronouns.
Let that sink in.
While Border Patrol goes underfunded and small businesses hang on by a thread, Democrats are holding the government hostage over rainbow grants in Serbia. You can’t even make this stuff up.
Johnson didn’t mince words. “Welcome to day 14 of the Democrat government shutdown,” he said. “Two weeks of Democrats in Congress inflicting untold pain on the American people for nothing other than pure politics.” He’s right. This isn’t about fiscal responsibility or even ideological differences. It’s about raw, performative power, the kind that values virtue signaling overseas more than solvency at home.
Republicans offered a clean continuing resolution, a simple “keep the lights on” plan. Democrats rejected it multiple times, despite having supported the same idea in the past. Why? Because Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has to feed the activist wing of his party — the Marxist base Johnson rightly called out, which now dictates everything from border policy to budget negotiations.
And that’s just one line item on their laundry list of lunacy.
Democrats also want $24.6 million for “climate resilience in Honduras,” $13.4 million for “civic engagement in Zimbabwe,” and another $2 million to “organize for feminist democratic principles in Africa.” There’s even $2.9 million earmarked for “desert locust risk reduction” in the Horn of Africa. Apparently, locusts rank higher than laid-off federal employees or struggling American families.
It’s hard to decide what’s more insulting, the waste of money or the smugness behind it. Washington elites genuinely believe they can buy the world’s virtue with your tax dollars, even as grocery prices and mortgage rates choke the very middle class they claim to defend.
Johnson called it “absurd,” and that’s being polite. Because this isn’t just about numbers. It’s about values, the ones Democrats keep exporting at taxpayer expense. They’ve turned the federal budget into a social justice brochure.
And then, to top it off, their proposal tries to undo every ounce of common sense Republicans managed to restore last session. Democrats want to re-add illegal immigrants to taxpayer-funded health care, reversing provisions in the Working Families Tax Cut Act that kept benefits for citizens only. That move alone could cost nearly $200 billion. They also want to kill modest work requirements for able-bodied men without dependents, because apparently, “accountability” is the new hate speech.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get dumber, they want to make the COVID-era Obamacare subsidies permanent, no income caps, no reform, no oversight. Just another open tab on the taxpayer credit card. Speaker Johnson’s response was simple and refreshingly adult: “We are not doing that.”
Good. Someone finally said it.
It’s about time Washington remembered that “governing” doesn’t mean scattering dollars across the globe in the name of progressive therapy. The Democrat shutdown isn’t a stand for the people; it’s a tantrum for the NGOs. They’d rather keep the government shuttered than give up their global social experiments.
So when you hear Democrats cry about “Republican obstruction,” remember this: Republicans offered a way forward. Democrats offered pronoun grants in Bosnia. The choice couldn’t be clearer.
If they want to fund democracy, maybe start with our own, the one that’s being held hostage by activists in $2,000 suits who still think “equity” means throwing your paycheck into a Balkan rainbow fund.
This isn’t governing. It’s globalist performance art. And they want America to foot the bill.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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