Washington, Dec 19: President-elect Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan on Wednesday to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown, instead telling House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to essentially renegotiate — days before a deadline when federal funding runs out.
Trump’s sudden entrance into the debate and new demands sent Congress spiralling as lawmakers are trying to wrap up work and head home for the holidays. It leaves Johnson scrambling to engineer a new plan before Friday’s deadline to keep government open.
“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH,” Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a statement.
The president-elect made an almost unrealistic proposal that combined some continuation of government funds along with a much more controversial provision to raise the nation’s debt limit — something his own party routinely rejects. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” they wrote.
Democrats decried the GOP revolt over the stopgap measure, which would have also provided some USD 100.4 billion in disaster aid to states hammered by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.
“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt everyday Americans all across this country,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Jeffries said “an agreement is an agreement”, and by backing out of it, “the House Republicans “will now own any harm that is visited upon the American people”.
Already, the massive 1,500-page bill was on the verge of collapse, as hard right conservatives rejected the increased spending, egged on by Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk who rejected the plan almost as soon as it was released late on Tuesday night.
Rank-and-file lawmakers complained about the extras, which included their first pay-raises in more than a decade — a shock after one of the most unproductive chaotic sessions in modern times.
Even the addition of much-needed disaster aid, some USD 100.4 billion in the aftermath of hurricanes and other natural calamities that ravaged states this year, plus USD 10 billion in economic assistance for farmers failed to win over the budget-slashing GOP. A number of Republicans had been waiting for Trump to signal whether they should vote yes or no.
“This should not pass,” Musk posted on his social media site X in the wee hours of Wednesday.
One lawmaker said office phone lines were flooded with calls from constituents. (PTI)
