Commentary by Stephen Macaulay
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), Speaker of the US House of Representatives, makes $223,500 per year.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Leader, makes $193,400.
The median household income in Louisiana is approximately $60,000.
To qualify for SNAP benefits in Louisiana, a four-person household can make no more than $64,296 annually. A single-person household’s limit is $31,296.
Approximately one in five Louisianians qualify for SNAP benefits.
Mike Johnson effectively put the House on vacation since September 19, 2025.
That is, he maintains that the House passed a “clean CR,” which he repeats over and over in front of microphones in Washington, DC, because he probably doesn’t want to go back to Louisiana and face his constituents in the 4th congressional district.
His point is that this CR — or continuing resolution — would extend the spending of the previous year with no add-ons or amendments, so SNAP and other benefits would be funded if the Senate were to pass the House bill.
The “clean CR,” House Resolution 5371, passed with 221 votes in favor, 212 against.
Or 51.04% for.
Not exactly a resounding win.
Yet Mike Johnson has, in effect, said that the House has done its work, and won’t go back to work until that work is accepted by the Senate.
Meanwhile Johnson and Scalise, among other House members, continue to collect their salaries.
From September 19 to October 31 there are six weeks.
This means Johnson has made $25,788 during this time. It would take 5.16 months for someone earning $60,000 per year to make that much—and they would undoubtedly have to be working to earn that.
(Scalise, $22,315 during six weeks.)
(“Regular House members make $174,000 per year, so for those who are drawing a salary that’s $20,076 during the House not being in session for six weeks.)
The income aside, this is truly unacceptable behavior.
The members of the House have a job to do, which includes deliberating and negotiating. This whole notion of “Oh, we’ve already done that and so we’re done” is the sort of arrogance that would get an employee of a commercial enterprise summarily sacked.
If this “clean CR” isn’t helping out the people who live in Louisiana’s 4th or 1st (Scalise’s district), then do your jobs and get back to work so that there can be a resolution that will help out not just the needy Americans, but all Americans — there are some 1.4 million federal workers who are either furloughed or working without pay, and their jobs have ramifications that go beyond their immediate households (if someone isn’t working, then odds are she won’t be spending money at the local grocery store, which has an impact on the employees who may lose their jobs if there are many such people not shopping).
While the behavior of people like Johnson has been characterized as timidity in the face of Donald Trump, it is also an undeserved arrogance — and Trump is no less guilty of this.
While it seems that the Republicans are dominant, this dominance is pretty much a position rather than something of substance.
Let’s remember the make-up of the House is 219 Republicans and 215 Democrats, and if Johnson does his job and Adelita Grijalva (D-Az) is sworn in, that makes it 219 to 216. Not exactly a huge majority.
Also remember the popular vote in the 2024 presidential election was Trump 77,303,573 and Harris 75,019,257, which means that Trump had 49.9% of the popular vote and Harris 48.4%. Yes, Trump won, but this was not a mandate by any stretch of the imagination.
The recent Economist/YouGov poll showing that while 39% of Americans “Strongly or somewhat approve” of how Donald Trump is doing his job, 58% of Americans “Strongly or somewhat disapprove” of what he’s doing—and that 19-point spread is significant.
When it comes to economic issues, Trump is -22% on “Jobs and the economy” and
-31% on “Inflation/prices” — the very fundamental things that Americans are directly impacted by on a daily basis and likely the things that a non-trivial number of those 77,303,573 voters thought he would excel at.
And while Trump and his acolytes were all giddy about DOGE, the Economist/YouGov poll found:
- 71% want spending for veterans to be increased a lot or slightly, and another 18% want it to remain the same
- 69% want increases in Social Security and 18% want it to remain the same
- 62% want increased in spending for education and 16% want it to remain the same
- 64% want increases in Medicare and 22% want it to remain the same
- 55% want increases in Medicaid and 22% want it to remain the same
And while the number for SNAP isn’t quite as good:
- 46% want increases
But when you add in the 26% that want SNAP spending to stay the same, that is a total of 72% of Americans who want SNAP spending to be spent where it is now or increased.
Nine percent are unsure, and 18% want it to be decreased slightly or a lot.
In fact, if you look at all those categories and sum the numbers (those who want increases or who want the spending to be the same), then it is clear that people do not want cuts in these programs.
Meanwhile, Trump is doing want can be considered seriously unpopular things:
- 24% approve of his cancelling trade talks with Canada — while 55% disapprove
- 25% approve of his tearing down the East Wing — while 61% disapprove
- 16% approve of his commuting the sentence of George Santos — while 60% disapprove
How does any of this — alienating our key trading partner, doing a profligate act of self-aggrandizement, showing contempt for law — help Americans?
And this brings us back to Mike Johnson and his colleagues.
The Economist/YouGov poll found the American people have less confidence in Congress than any other institution. Fifty-eight percent have Very little confidence.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that many of those people aren’t doing their jobs.
Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.