Top Dem: Americans Need To Suffer So Dems Can Have Leverage

Democrat Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives Katherine Clark said that American families are going to have to suffer through the Democrat-led government shutdown so that the party can retain its “leverage.”

“Shutdowns are terrible. And of course there will be families that are going to suffer. We take that responsibility very seriously, but it is one of the few leverage times we have,” Clark said in a recent interview with Fox News.

Democrats are refusing to sign onto a clean continuing resolution that would keep the government open and at current spending levels through November. Passing the clean continuing resolution would allow for Congress to negotiate any changes to spending during the appropriations period. Notably, Democrats voted for a clean continuing resolution 13 times under the Biden administration.

“This is now the longest full shutdown in American history,” Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday during a press conference. “And yet again, Senate Democrats voted for the 11th time — 12 times overall, when you count House and Senate Democrats — to prolong the pain and keep the government closed.”

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Democrats are “holding the entire federal government hostage,” adding, “We will not be extorted on this crazy plot of theirs.”

But Democrats would rather American families “suffer” in order to add $1.5 trillion in spending (with $500 million going to outlets like NPR and PBS), and reinstate free health care for illegal aliens.

[READ NEXT: Dems Want Medicaid For Millions Of Biden-Era Migrants But Use Sneaky Wordplay To Pretend They Don’t]

Democrats want to rescind Subtitle B in Title VII of the One Big Beautiful Bill, which had narrowed the eligibility of government health care benefits, including Medicare eligibility and premium tax credits, to specific groups: Americans, lawful permanent residents, “certain Cuban and Haitian immigrants,” and Compact of Free Association “migrants lawfully residing in the U.S.”

Notably, the Biden administration paroled 2.8 million aliens into the U.S. from countries like Haiti and Venezuela. These aliens were “otherwise inadmissible,” but their parole status gave them potential eligibility for certain welfare programs.

By rescinding Subtitle B, Democrats would effectively open the door for some noncitizens — including illegal aliens who were granted parole for at least one year under the Biden administration, like Nicaraguans and Venezuelans — to get free health care by removing the specific eligibility language.

But apparently, such a wishlist is worth Americans having to “suffer,” at least according to Clark.