Tensions erupted on Capitol Hill Wednesday as two members of the House of Representatives got into a screaming match on the eighth day of the 2025 government shutdown.<\/p>\n
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., confronted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., outside the latter’s news conference over a bipartisan compromise on enhanced ObamaCare subsidies, a key flashpoint in the fight over federal funding.<\/p>\n
He also taunted Jeffries about whether he would endorse democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City \u2014 which Jeffries did not answer.<\/p>\n
‘First of all, I don’t answer to you. You don’t even answer to yourself,’ Jeffries responded.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The heated exchange began with Lawler challenging Jeffries to sign onto bipartisan legislation extending COVID-19 pandemic-era enhancements to ObamaCare subsidies for one year.<\/p>\n
Those subsidies are set to expire at the end of 2025 without congressional action, and Democrats have been demanding that the issue be addressed before they would agree on a federal funding bill to end the shutdown.<\/p>\n
‘We’ve got a one-year extension, why don’t you sign on right now?’ Lawler asked.<\/p>\n
Jeffries responded angrily, ‘Did you get permission from your boss? Did your boss Donald Trump give you permission?’<\/p>\n
‘He’s not my boss,’ Lawler replied.<\/p>\n
The two men spoke over each other for nearly five minutes, both accusing the other’s party of derailing the government.<\/p>\n
‘You’re an embarrassment,’ Jeffries said, before confronting him for voting for President Donald Trump’s massive policy bill, the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n
‘I voted for a tax cut bill that gave the largest tax cut to Americans in history \u2014 including, by the way, the average New Yorker getting a $4,000 tax cut. Are you against that?’ Lawler asked.<\/p>\n
Jeffries responded, ‘You’re embarrassing yourself. The largest cut to Medicaid in American history \u2014 you voted for that.’<\/p>\n
The House Democratic leader pointed his finger into Lawler’s chest, telling him, ‘You’re not going to talk to me, and talk over me, because you don’t want to hear what I have to say. So why don’t you just keep your mouth shut?’<\/p>\n
‘Oh, is that the way to talk?’ Lawler retorted.<\/p>\n
They continued debating the merits of the Republicans’ policy bill, though Lawler repeatedly tried to ask Jeffries if he would sign onto the temporary ObamaCare extension.<\/p>\n
Jeffries then shifted the conversation to accusing House Republicans of remaining in their districts during the government shutdown \u2014 something Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., urged them to do in order to keep the focus on D.C. on Senate Democrats refusing the GOP’s funding bill.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
‘You wanted Republicans to be here, I’m here,’ Lawler said. ‘And by the way, you can pass an [Affordable Care Act] extension right now. Sign onto this bill.’<\/p>\n
Jeffries asked, ‘Mike, is your boss Donald Trump behind it?’<\/p>\n
He argued it would take more Republicans than those signed onto the legislation to get it passed in the House as the fight further devolved into insults.<\/p>\n
‘Are you mathematically challenged, bro?’ Jeffries asked.<\/p>\n
Lawler said, ‘No, I think you are. You have 215 Democrats.’<\/p>\n
The fight came hours after Johnson confronted a pair of Senate Democrats outside his office who were demanding the Republican leader swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz.<\/p>\n
Senate Democrats rejected the GOP-led funding bill for the sixth time on Wednesday, all but guaranteeing the shutdown will extend into a ninth day.<\/p>\n
The House passed a bill to extend fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels through Nov. 21 to give lawmakers more time to create a longer-term deal for FY 2026 spending.<\/p>\n
But Democrats, furious at being sidelined in federal funding talks, have largely said they’ll reject any deal that does not include<\/u> an extension of the expiring ObamaCare subsidies.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tensions erupted on Capitol Hill Wednesday as two members of the House of Representatives got…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystreetchronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystreetchronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystreetchronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystreetchronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystreetchronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailystreetchronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystreetchronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailystreetchronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystreetchronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailystreetchronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}