House Speaker Mike Johnson revealed on Tuesday that Democrats are demanding billions in wasteful and ideological spending, including $3.9 million for LGBTQI+ democracy grants in the Western Balkans, as part of their conditions to reopen the government.
Speaking on the 14th day of what he called the Democrat government shutdown, Johnson said the American people are suffering because Democrats have chosen politics over responsibility.
“Welcome to day 14 of the Democrat government shutdown,” Johnson said during his press briefing. “It’s two weeks of Democrats in Congress inflicting untold pain on the American people for nothing other than pure politics.”
Johnson explained that House Republicans had already offered a clean continuing resolution to keep the government funded, but Democrats repeatedly rejected it.
Instead, he said, Democrats are tying unrelated left-wing priorities to essential government operations in an attempt to strong-arm Republicans into approving radical spending measures.
He accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of catering to what he described as the party’s “Marxist base.”
The Speaker laid out details from the Democrats’ counterproposal, calling it a $1.5 trillion wish list of reckless spending that would send taxpayer money to liberal causes and foreign projects that have nothing to do with running the U.S. government.
Among the examples he cited were $24.6 million for climate resilience programs in Honduras.
Another $13.4 million would go to civic engagement programs in Zimbabwe.
An additional $2.9 million is earmarked for desert locust risk reduction in the Horn of Africa.
The Democrats’ plan also calls for $2 million to fund “organizing for feminist democratic principles” in Africa, according to Johnson.
Johnson highlighted the $3.9 million in LGBTQI+ democracy grants for the Western Balkans as an example of Democrats’ misplaced priorities.
“They want to spend 3.9 million of your hard-earned dollars for LGBTQI+ democracy grants in the Western Balkans,” Johnson said. “We are not doing that.”
He argued that Democrats are also trying to undo common-sense reforms enacted by Republicans that prevent illegal immigrants from accessing taxpayer-funded healthcare.
“This is a fact,” he said. “They would add illegal aliens and non-citizens back to taxpayer-funded benefits. It would cost taxpayers nearly $200 billion.”
Johnson further warned that Democrats want to roll back modest work requirements placed on able-bodied young men without dependents.
At the same time, Democrats are pushing to make COVID-era Obamacare subsidies permanent, with no income limits or meaningful reforms.
Johnson said this approach would not only punish working Americans but also reward dependency and mismanagement.
The Speaker accused Democrats of prioritizing ideological projects over the immediate needs of the American people.
He said their proposal exposes how out of touch the party has become, highlighting spending for causes abroad while Americans face uncertainty at home.
“This is not about keeping the lights on,” Johnson said. “This is about Democrats trying to use the shutdown as leverage to fund their far-left agenda.”
Johnson reminded reporters that Republicans have already passed legislation to reopen the government responsibly, without any of the unrelated political riders Democrats insist on including.
The Republican plan, he said, would maintain government operations, protect taxpayers, and prevent wasteful spending abroad.
Johnson also pointed out that the Democrats’ proposal would restore funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, sending a half-billion dollars to what he described as liberal media outlets that have long benefited from taxpayer subsidies.
He described it as another example of Democrats using government funding to reward their political allies rather than serving the public good.
“These are not the priorities of the American people,” Johnson said firmly. “They are the priorities of a radical political class that has forgotten who they work for.”
The Speaker ended his remarks by calling on Democrats to stop the political games and join Republicans in reopening the government immediately.
“We have a clean bill ready to go,” he said. “It keeps the government open, pays our troops, secures the border, and protects hardworking taxpayers. Democrats need to stop holding America hostage.”
Johnson’s comments reflect growing frustration among House Republicans who say Democrats are using the shutdown to push through spending on social experiments, foreign projects, and activist groups under the guise of government funding.
He warned that such spending will only deepen America’s fiscal crisis and fuel public anger toward Washington’s political class.
“This is a moment for leadership,” Johnson concluded. “It’s time to put the American people first and end this shutdown—not by giving in to woke demands, but by standing firm for fiscal sanity and common sense.”
When it comes to personal space, many people tend to draw clear boundaries, but the truth is that those “rules” of respecting someone’s privacy doesn’t really apply to dogs.
Yes, dogs are the best friends a human could ever ask for. Their love and loyalty cannot be matched, that’s for sure, but they also have a few quirky habits that can catch their owners off guard, like their tendency to shove their nose where it clearly doesn’t belong.
Just as they instinctively greet other dogs by sniffing their behinds, they often extend the same curiosity to people. That’s the reason why many dogs, without a second thought, will nudge their nose right into a human’s crotch. It may feel awkward for us, but for them, it’s completely natural. So, why do dogs do it?
In fact, a dog’s nose is one of the most extraordinary tools in the animal kingdom, and everyone who has ever owned a canine can tell you that.
While us humans have about 6 million scent receptors, dogs have up to 300 million which makes their sense of smell around 10,000 times stronger than ours.
What’s more, dogs possess an additional olfactory organ called Jacobson’s organ (or the vomeronasal organ), located just above the roof of their mouth. This special structure helps them detect pheromones—chemical signals that reveal detailed information about another individual, whether it’s a fellow dog, another animal, or even a human. Since that’s plenty of data to process, dogs’ brains dedicate about 40 times more space to scent than ours do, which is what makes them superheroes of smell, able to track down anything from hidden drugs to changes in blood sugar. With this in mind, it really doesn’t come as a surprise that they make extraordinary service dogs that help the ill and the vulnerable.
Well, dogs sticking their noses in our crotches is rather awkward, but they’re not trying to embarrass us. On the contrary, it’s all about dogs being super-powered sniffers and having instincts they can’t turn off, no matter how much we want them to.
One of the reasons why dogs tend to sniff our crotch is because of sweat glands, specifically, apocrine glands. These glands release pheromones, which carry information about age, sex, mood, and even reproductive status. While dogs have these glands all over, the strongest signals come from the genitals and anus, which is why butt-sniffing is considered to be a canine handshake.
Humans also have apocrine glands, mainly in the armpits and groin, and since armpits are hard to reach, the crotch is the next best information hub for the dogs.
For breeds such as Beagles, Bloodhounds, and Basset Hounds, resisting to smell humans’ crotches is nearly impossible.
During certain situations, the smell humans release becomes stronger. Menstruation, childbirth, or even recent sexual activity can increase the release of pheromones, which makes dogs more eager to investigate. That’s also why they have a thing for underwear.
In his book How Dogs Think, Stanley Coren, PhD, explains how Australian Shepherds were once trained to sniff out cows that had just ovulated, helping ranchers time breeding more effectively. While it hasn’t been scientifically proven that dogs can reliably detect ovulation in humans, they certainly notice changes in body chemistry. This same skill is what makes them useful in medical research, including the early detection of conditions like ovarian cancer.
If you want to prevent your dog from sniffing your crotch, there are some tips and tricks vets and experts share.
Some trainers recommend redirection rather than punishment. A reliable technique is fist targeting, where the dog learns to touch your closed hand with their nose on cue.
Once the dog understands, you can redirect them whenever they approach someone’s groin. Because you can position the fist anywhere, it’s easy to block the behavior before it happens. Others can also offer their fist as a greeting instead of becoming the target of an awkward sniff.