![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/573303400_832273505981296_9154576122311198546_n-1-1762054667-q80.webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Welcome to day 14 of the Democrat government shutdown,\u201d Johnson said during his press briefing. \u201cIt\u2019s two weeks of Democrats in Congress inflicting untold pain on the American people for nothing other than pure politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson explained that House Republicans had already offered a clean continuing resolution to keep the government funded, but Democrats repeatedly rejected it.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of catering to what he described as the party\u2019s \u201cMarxist base.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Speaker laid out details from the Democrats\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
Among the examples he cited were $24.6 million for climate resilience programs in Honduras.<\/p>\n
Another $13.4 million would go to civic engagement programs in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
An additional $2.9 million is earmarked for desert locust risk reduction in the Horn of Africa.<\/p>\n
The Democrats\u2019 plan also calls for $2 million to fund \u201corganizing for feminist democratic principles\u201d in Africa, according to Johnson.<\/p>\n
Johnson highlighted the $3.9 million in LGBTQI+ democracy grants for the Western Balkans as an example of Democrats\u2019 misplaced priorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to spend 3.9 million of your hard-earned dollars for LGBTQI+ democracy grants in the Western Balkans,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe are not doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He argued that Democrats are also trying to undo common-sense reforms enacted by Republicans that prevent illegal immigrants from accessing taxpayer-funded healthcare.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a fact,\u201d he said. \u201cThey would add illegal aliens and non-citizens back to taxpayer-funded benefits. It would cost taxpayers nearly $200 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson further warned that Democrats want to roll back modest work requirements placed on able-bodied young men without dependents.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Democrats are pushing to make COVID-era Obamacare subsidies permanent, with no income limits or meaningful reforms.<\/p>\n
Johnson said this approach would not only punish working Americans but also reward dependency and mismanagement.<\/p>\n
The Speaker accused Democrats of prioritizing ideological projects over the immediate needs of the American people.<\/p>\n
He said their proposal exposes how out of touch the party has become, highlighting spending for causes abroad while Americans face uncertainty at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not about keeping the lights on,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThis is about Democrats trying to use the shutdown as leverage to fund their far-left agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Republican plan, he said, would maintain government operations, protect taxpayers, and prevent wasteful spending abroad.<\/p>\n
Johnson also pointed out that the Democrats\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
He described it as another example of Democrats using government funding to reward their political allies rather than serving the public good.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not the priorities of the American people,\u201d Johnson said firmly. \u201cThey are the priorities of a radical political class that has forgotten who they work for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Speaker ended his remarks by calling on Democrats to stop the political games and join Republicans in reopening the government immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a clean bill ready to go,\u201d he said. \u201cIt keeps the government open, pays our troops, secures the border, and protects hardworking taxpayers. Democrats need to stop holding America hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
He warned that such spending will only deepen America\u2019s fiscal crisis and fuel public anger toward Washington\u2019s political class.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a moment for leadership,\u201d Johnson concluded. \u201cIt\u2019s time to put the American people first and end this shutdown\u2014not by giving in to woke demands, but by standing firm for fiscal sanity and common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani delivered a fiery victory speech late Tuesday, promising to deliver on his progressive agenda and declaring his election a historic mandate for change.<\/p>\n
Mamdani, 34, who will become New York City\u2019s first socialist, first Muslim, and first mayor of South Asian descent, claimed victory at Brooklyn\u2019s Paramount Theatre, The New York Post\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Uganda-born lawmaker said his win belonged to all immigrant New Yorkers and condemned Islamophobic attacks on his campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Eugene Debs once said, I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity,\u201d Mamdani said, quoting the early 20th-century socialist presidential candidate.<\/p>\n
He also invoked the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, India\u2019s first prime minister, saying, \u201cA moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raised on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side, Mamdani thanked working-class New Yorkers who powered his campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cFingers bruised from lifting boxes on the warehouse floor, palms calloused from delivery bike handlebars, knuckles scarred with kitchen burns \u2014 these are not hands that have been allowed to hold power,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd yet, over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater. Tonight, against all odds, we have grasped it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s remarks mixed gratitude with defiance, targeting President Trump and former Governor Andrew Cuomo while promising sweeping reforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York, tonight you have delivered a mandate for change, a mandate for a new kind of politics,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cWe won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani vowed to pursue his campaign proposals, including freezing rent for two million residents in regulated apartments, creating free citywide bus service, providing universal child care, and launching a Department of Community Safety to handle mental health calls instead of the NYPD.<\/p>\n
He said the policies would help working-class and marginalized New Yorkers struggling with the cost of living.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be an age where New Yorkers expect from their leaders a bold vision of what we will achieve rather than a list of excuses for we are too timid to achieve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light,\u201d Mamdani added.<\/p>\n
He declared that his victory marked the end of an era dominated by establishment figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy friends, we have toppled a political dynasty,\u201d Mamdani said to cheers. \u201cI wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life. But let tonight be the final time I utter his name as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few.\u201d<\/p>\n
Citing former Governor Mario Cuomo\u2019s famous line, Mamdani said, \u201cYou campaign in poetry, you govern in prose.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we enter City Hall in 58 days, expectations will be high. We will meet them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mamdani closed by promising tangible results for ordinary New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York, this power, it\u2019s yours,\u201d he said. \u201cThis city belongs to you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t