A tremendous number of Democrats voted against a continuing resolution to avert a partial government shutdown this past week, as underscored by a statistic delivered by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) over the weekend.
Joining “Life, Liberty, & Levin” on Fox News, Johnson spoke about how Republicans who control both chambers of Congress “put the Democrats on record for just raw partisan politics” with votes on the stopgap bill.
“Think of it: 99% of the Democrats in Congress, both the House and the Senate, voted to shut the government down to try to make some sort of aimless political point,” Johnson told host Mark Levin. “It’s shameless. They are using the American people as pawns. But Republicans are getting the job done and we’re sticking up for the country.”
99% of Democrats in Congress voted to shut down the government just to make an aimless political point. It is shameless. They are using the American people as pawns.
Meanwhile, Republicans stuck together and got the job done to keep our government funded. pic.twitter.com/nQx5POfjJg
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) March 16, 2025
A single House Democrat — Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) — voted in favor of passing the continuing resolution, which provides funds to various federal agencies and programs through September 30. In the Senate, a handful of Democrats chose not to support blocking the funding patch, but only Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Angus King (I-ME) voted to pass it.
Johnson gave thanks to his Republican colleagues for largely sticking together and credited President Donald Trump for playing a “huge part” in mustering enough support to pass the continuing resolution before the midnight deadline at the end of Friday.
Only Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) broke from the GOP line, warning the stopgap bill would continue to fund programs that the Trump administration seeks to cut via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort led by Elon Musk. However, Johnson contended the measure did show fiscal restraint.
“We all dug in and got the job done for the second — third time in a row. They keep underestimating us on these big votes, but the Republicans are sticking together and getting it done,” Johnson said. “And this time, we passed a resolution to fund the government — to do the responsible thing. To do it in a way that actually reduces spending year over year, which we think is the first time that might have happened in the modern era — if ever.”
