{"id":1056757,"date":"2025-10-30T16:41:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1056757"},"modified":"2025-10-30T16:41:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:41:50","slug":"breaking-mike-johnson-admits-that-snap-benefits-are-political-leverage-for-trumps-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/breaking-mike-johnson-admits-that-snap-benefits-are-political-leverage-for-trumps-government-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Mike Johnson Admits that SNAP Benefits are Political Leverage for Trump\u2019s Government Shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"449\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1050776\" srcset=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png 1101w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=300,132 300w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=768,337 768w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?resize=1024,449 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>House Speaker Mike Johnson just said <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/factpostnews\/status\/1983932461948997945\">the quiet part out loud<\/a>: Republicans see SNAP benefits as nothing more than political leverage in their government shutdown. Donald Trump has the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/article\/the-trump-administration-has-the-power-and-legal-obligation-to-pay-snap-benefits-during-the-shutdown\/\">power<\/a> to ensure that working families don\u2019t go hungry when SNAP benefits are <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/snap-food-assistance-government-shutdown-9cece00f9d6ef39fc5a0240ca2374696\">ripped away<\/a> from 42 million Americans on November 1st \u2014 but he and his Republican loyalists in Congress would keep the government shut down so they can <a href=\"https:\/\/democrats.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=90379082c3d9e6a03baf3f677&amp;id=1b06b74f64&amp;e=928e22e616\">double health care premiums<\/a> for 22 million Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>In response, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement:&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMike Johnson just admitted the disgraceful truth: Republicans see no problem letting working families go hungry as long as it scores them political points. This is a new low in the Republican crusade to keep the government shut down, protect their billionaire tax cuts, and avoid fixing skyrocketing health insurance costs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd this is personal for me. Growing up, my family relied on SNAP to get through tough economic times, so I know this isn\u2019t a game. Losing a basic lifeline like food while the rich get richer than ever under Trump is a terrifying and unfair reality. Because of Republicans, working families will be forced to choose between paying for groceries or rent, utility bills or medicine, gas or clothes for their kids. Here\u2019s my message for Mike Johnson: Hungry children and families don\u2019t care who\u2019s \u2018winning\u2019 the shutdown fight \u2014 they care about putting food on the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile Democrats have been showing up to work for months to keep the government open and make life more affordable, Donald Trump has utterly failed the American family every step of the way. Frankly, if Trump cared even half as much about working Americans as he does his fancy, corporate-bought ballroom, we wouldn\u2019t be in this crisis. Republicans must put an end to these craven attempts to take away people\u2019s health care and food assistance, and join Democrats in reopening the government and lowering costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With November 1st right around the corner and millions of Americans\u2019 health care and food assistance on the chopping block,\u00a0Trump STILL refuses to join Democrats on a common-sense proposal that reopens the government and lowers health care costs. Instead, he has <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Eleanor_Mueller\/status\/1978492440865570827\">worked to send<\/a> a $40 billion bailout to Argentina, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/10\/21\/us\/politics\/trump-justice-department-compensation.html\">demanded<\/a> $230 million in taxpayer funds as payment for his criminal investigations, demolished the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/factpostnews\/status\/1981407302268678148\">East Wing<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/10\/15\/politics\/trump-white-house-ballroom-donor-dinner\">hosted<\/a> his billionaire friends at the White House for his $350 million ballroom remodel. It\u2019s clear who Trump works for, and it\u2019s not the American people.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Speaker Mike Johnson just said the quiet part out loud: Republicans see SNAP benefits as nothing more than political leverage in their government shutdown. Donald Trump has the power to ensure that working families don\u2019t go hungry when SNAP benefits are ripped away from 42 million Americans on November 1st \u2014 but he and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1056757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: Mike Johnson Admits that SNAP Benefits are Political Leverage for Trump\u2019s Government Shutdown - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/breaking-mike-johnson-admits-that-snap-benefits-are-political-leverage-for-trumps-government-shutdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-30T20:41:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1101\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tristin Byrd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tristin Byrd\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/breaking-mike-johnson-admits-that-snap-benefits-are-political-leverage-for-trumps-government-shutdown\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/breaking-mike-johnson-admits-that-snap-benefits-are-political-leverage-for-trumps-government-shutdown\/\",\"name\":\"BREAKING: Mike Johnson Admits that SNAP Benefits are Political Leverage for Trump\u2019s Government Shutdown - 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