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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThxOne" data-source="post: 8912755" data-attributes="member: 675210">"Reasons for the ShutdownThe government has been shut down since Oct. 1 because congressional Republicans and Democrats are at an impasse.Republicans want to pass a “clean” continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government with no strings attached. Meanwhile, Democrats primarily want Republicans to agree to a funding bill that would extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies that expire this year and reverse certain Medicaid changes that became law with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.But some Republicans have said that Democrats have other motives.In an Oct. 14 press conference about the shutdown, Johnson said that a counterproposal offered by Democrats “would restore up to $5 billion of American taxpayer funds for wasteful spending for international projects.” He then listed examples of spending requests that he said were “in their legislation.”“They want to spend $24.6 million of your hard-earned dollars as a taxpayer for climate resilience in Honduras. They want to spend $13.4 million for civic engagement in Zimbabwe. They want to send $3.9 million for LGBTQI+ democracy grants in the Western Balkans. They want to spend $2.9 million of your dollars for desert locust risk reduction in the Horn of Africa, and $2 million for ‘organizing for feminist democratic principles in Africa.’“We are not doing that,” Johnson said.The issue also came up when a reporter from a conservative news outlet asked Jeffries about the purported spending requests during an Oct. 22 press conference held by House Democrats.“Can you speak to some of the programs that Democrats want funding for in the $1.5 trillion list of demands?” the reporter asked, referring to an estimate of the total 10-year cost of the continuing resolution proposed by Democrats. “We’ve heard things like $13.4 million for civic engagement in Zimbabwe, $3.9 million for ***** democracy grants in the Balkans, things like this. You guys say this is about saving health care, but how do these pet projects fit in?”Jeffries responded dismissively: “We have no idea what you’re talking about, or what Republican extremist fed you those talking points. But the reality is, what we are doing is defending the health care of the American people.”While there is a basis for the claim that Democrats want to restore billions of dollars in canceled foreign aid, Republicans have gone too far in stating that Democrats have demanded specific projects around the world be funded with the money."</blockquote>

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