Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan on Wednesday to prevent a government shutdown by Christmas, according to the House speaker. Mike Johnson And the Republicans are essentially renegotiating themselves — days before the federal funding deadline.
The President-elect suddenly entered the debate and sent Congress gasping for air with new demands as lawmakers tried to wrap up work and home for the holidays. Johnson is left scrambling to get a new plan made before Friday’s deadline to keep the government open.
“Publicans must be smart and tough,” Trump and JD Vance said in a statement.
Trump has made an almost unequivocal proposal that continued government spending combined with a much larger controversial provision to increase the nation’s debt limit — a request from his own party — he refuses. “It is another thing to betray the country,” they wrote.
Democrats have called out the Republican GOP for a stopgap measure that would have also provided about $100bn in disaster aid to states, led by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.
“House Republicans were ordered to shut down the government,” the House Democratic leader said Hakeem Jeffries.
“And they’re hurting American workers they claim to support. You break a bipartisan agreement, you have the consequences that follow.”
Already, the massive 1,500-page bill was on the verge of collapse, as hard-right conservatives rejected increased spending by a billionaire Trump ally. Elon Musk who rejected the plan almost as soon as it was released on Tuesday night.
Rank-and-file lawyers complained about the extra funding – which includes the first pay plan in more than a decade – after one of the most fruitless blackmail sessions in recent times. Some Republicans were waiting for Trump to indicate whether or not they would vote for him.
Even the addition of major disaster aid to the roughly $100.4bn in recovery from hurricanes and other natural disasters that ravaged states this year, plus $10bn in financial aid to farmers, didn’t win the GOP budget cut.
“This must not pass,” Musk posted on Twitter/10 by us in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The results come as no surprise to Johnson, who, like other Republican House speakers before him, has been unable to convince his majority to go along with the practices of the federal government, which they prefer to sharpen.
All of this shows how difficult it will be for the Republicans next year, when they take control of the House, the Senate and the White House, to rally and lead the country. And he understands how much Johnson and Republican leaders depend on Trump’s blessing to see any legislative package across the finish line.
“What do Republicans want President Trump to do: vote for CR or shut down the government? In the absence of direction, confusion reigns,” said retiring Senator Mitt Romney, in a post on the 10th.
Musk, who is he? ask for a new Department of Effective Government and introducing a charge against this, he warned: “Whoever votes from the court or the senate, deserves to be decided upon for 2 years!”
Democrats, who negotiated the final product with Johnson and Senate Republican leaders, will be hoping to provide enough support for Johnson to ensure passage, which often happens on big bills. Federal government funding runs out at midnight on Friday.
“The faster Congress acts, the better,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The latest package extends existing government programs and services at current operating levels for several months, through March 14, 2025.
The stopgap measure is necessary because Congress has failed to pass annual appropriations bills to fund all the various agencies in the federal government, from the Pentagon and national security apparatus, to health, welfare, transportation and other domestic services. Since the fiscal year ended on September 30, Congress simply solved the problem by passing a temporary funding bill that expires on Friday.