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White House halts $2.1bn of Chicago infrastructure funding
The federal government put $2.1bn earmarked for Chicago infrastructure projects on hold, office and management and budget director Russ Vought said on Friday, in another jab at a Democrat-led city during the US government shutdown.
Vought wrote on X that projects affected included the Red Line extension – which was set to break ground next year and extend public transport to underserved areas in the city – as well as modernization work to a number of transit lines.
Vought wrote on social media Friday that the money was “put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting”.
He made a similar announcement earlier this week involving New York, where Vought said $18m for infrastructure would be paused, including funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River.
Key events
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that any further cuts to the federal government by the Trump administration is the Democrats’ fault.
“You’re also handing the administration an opportunity to do things that probably, in most cases, you’re not going to agree with,” Thune said about Democrats.
“The effects are very serious on real people, real Americans,” Speaker Mike Johnson said, when asked about previous comments saying that “people are having fun with this,” in regards to federal government slashing and potential layoffs.
“We support federal employees who do a great job in all these different areas, but what they’re trying to have fun with, trying to make light of, is to point out the absurdity of the Democrats’ position, and they’re using memes and all the tools of social media to do that,” Johnson said.
“Some people find that entertaining, but at the end of the day, the decisions are hard ones and I’m telling you, they’re not taking any pleasure in that.”
President Trump is “trolling the Democrats,” Speaker Mike Johnson said, when discussing further cuts to the federal government amid the shutdown.
“I mean, yes, because that’s what President Trump does and people are having fun with this,” Johnson said. “But at the end of the day, the decisions are tough ones.”
Speaker Mike Johnson said that, due to the government shutdown, the White House has to “prioritize” what to cut in response to the government shutdown.
“It serves the taxpayers to send less of their heard-earned money to Washington and keep more in their pockets,” Johnson said, adding that recent legislation passed by the Trump White House aims to do that.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that Democrats have a “fourth opportunity” to vote later today to open up the government.
“They have taken hostage the federal government – and, by extension, the American people, who are the only losers here,” Thune said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that Democrats are only trying to pick a fight with the Trump administration “to satisfy their far-left political base, far-left activist organizations” and blamed the shutdown on that party.
Speaker Mike Johnson there are “more reforms coming” to the Affordable Care Act, without elaborating what those changes may be.
Speaker Mike Johnson claimed that undocumented immigrants were receiving Medicaid, which is what led to the major changes in the Big Beautiful Act.
Undocumented immigrants are largely ineligible for federal health benefits. Some documented immigrants do qualify for Medicaid.
The Big Beautiful Act made major cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, while providing major tax breaks to the wealthy.
Speaker Mike Johnson said that the Big Beautiful Act, signed by Trump earlier this summer, helped eliminate “fraud and abuse of our health system.”
Johnson said the changes to Medicaid took place to “help provide more and better health services.”
Healthcare has been a key point of contention for the Democrats amid the ongoing negotiations for government funding.
Mike Johnson again blamed the Democratic Party during a press conference, as the third day of the government shutdown continues.
“I want Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren and AOC, and everybody else who’s been trying to spin this truth to watch and try to refute what I’m about to show you,” Johnson said, as he pointed to a printed image of the counter-proposal bill submitted by Democrats.
Mike Johnson also told Scripps News this morning that he is “right now” ruling out putting up any future bipartisan Senate compromise to reopen the government for a vote on the House floor.
I am right now because we said a clean continuing resolution. There’s no Republican priorities in the CR at all, it’s a very neutral simple straightforward status quo, which means I don’t have anything to negotiate.
He made similar comments yesterday, placing full blame on the Democrats for the ongoing shutdown.
House speaker Mike Johnson says ball is in the Democrats’ court to end shutdown
On the airwaves this morning, House speaker Mike Johnson continues to blame Democrats for the government shutdown and says it’s up to them to end the impasse.
“We’ve done exactly what is always done, a very clean, very simple resolution to keep the government open so that we can negotiate all these other issues,” Johnson told NBC’s Today. “They’ve rejected it because they’re trying to make a political play,” he said.
The ball is in the courts [of] the Democrats, not the Republicans. The Republicans have done our job, done our work, and now Chuck Schumer and 43 of his colleagues have to decide to do the right thing.
The House speaker also dismissed multiple polls that found more Americans believe Republicans are responsible for the shutdown than Democrats. Asked if Republicans are losing the messaging battle, he said:
The Democrats are trying to make this about politics, and I’m not surprised by some of the polls, because the mainstream media is advancing their narrative.
Johnson is due to speak at a press conference shortly, we’ll bring you all the latest from that when it gets going.
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