A 1,547-page interim spending bill meant to avert a government shutdown has effectively disappeared. After President-elect Trump, Vice President-elect Vance, and Elon Musk pushed through this weekend’s policy to avert a government shutdown and fund the government through March 14, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R. (Louisiana) has largely scrapped this plan. .
If House Republicans had the votes to pass the bill without leaning too heavily toward Democrats, Republicans might have been able to pass it before lawmakers intervened late Wednesday afternoon. Trump and Vance. However, the grassroots pressure that Mr. Musk generated with X and other initiatives was too strong.
Trump, Musk face conservative outrage over spending bill, House Republican leaders scramble over Plan B
This stopgap spending package proved unpopular because of its size and because the bill was adorned with various Congressional decorations, like a Christmas tree. Conservatives had expected Johnson to handle a different spending plan this holiday season. But it backfired. Terrible.
It’s worth noting that Trump didn’t voice his opinion until the 11th hour. He also called for raising the debt ceiling. This is the question the president-elect faced in the first quarter of this year, and it threatened to derail any legislative agenda or spook markets.
Despite enthusiastically promoting the bill on FOX this morning, Johnson’s decision to veer off course highlights a number of things.
President-elect Donald Trump reacts during a meeting with Prince William at the British Embassy in Paris, France, December 7, 2024. (Oleg Nikin/Getty Images)
This is a sign of what will happen after President-elect Trump takes office. And could that matter, as Mr Johnson could be at the mercy of the new president’s whimsical decisions?
Why did Mr Johnson withdraw the bill?
It made him very unpopular among the public. But things got even worse when Musk and the president-elect injected themselves.
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In many ways, it all started on January 3 when Johnson made the decision to withdraw the bill. It’s the day of the chairman’s vote. There are 434 members taking part in forming the new parliament, and Mr Johnson needs 218 votes. Otherwise, they will not have a majority and will not be able to become chairman. The House will have to vote again in January 2023 until it elects former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) five days later in the longest House speaker election since the 1850s.
Prime Minister Johnson tried to save himself with the Speaker’s vote by adding emergency farm spending to the bill. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson is now trying to save himself by introducing new legislation.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) listens during a press conference after the Republican convention at the U.S. Capitol on January 17, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Ironically, Johnson did not want to create drama with his spending package before Christmas. But in a situation that quickly became the first Congressional holiday stalemate since the fiscal cliff in 2012 and the threat of a government shutdown in 2014, the drama he got was just that: drama.
So, here’s the $64,000 question: What play will Johnson call next?
Will he do a clean CR to fund the government with nothing attached? Will it just be a bill that re-increases current funding along with disaster relief? Will it impose a suspension on the debt ceiling as President-elect Trump has requested?
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And the biggest question is, can anything pass at all? Especially if there are no votes from Democrats?
Mr Johnson has many conservatives who won’t vote for any CR at all. Many of them won’t vote to raise the debt ceiling either.
And even if there was a new bill, would conservatives insist on waiting three days to consider it? That causes a government shutdown.
Monday, November 11, 2024, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. (Stephanie Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The deadline is Friday at 11:59:59 pm ET.
So this requires someone to pull a rabbit out of a hat.
President-elect Trump’s maneuver today is reminiscent of a similar maneuver he took in December 2019, which triggered the longest government shutdown in history.
Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), then-Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and others are funding the government and providing government support during the Christmas period. They believed they had reached an agreement to avoid closure.
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The Senate voted in favor of the bill. Senators sat in the back of the chamber and even sang Christmas carols while voting.
Then Trump hesitated at the last minute. House Republicans followed suit. The government has been shut down for more than a month.
