(Headline USA) President-elect Donald Trump announced “success” in coming up with a new plan to fund the government and lift the debt ceiling a day before a government shutdown, urging Congress to swiftly pass it in votes as soon as Thursday evening.
Trump’s social media post landed as Republicans said they had narrowed in on a tentative accord after grueling closed-door talks.
The new plan would keep government running for three more months, add disaster assistance for hurricane-hit states and others, and allow more borrowing through Jan. 30, 2027, Republicans said.
“SUCCESS in Washington! Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal,” Trump posted.
Next steps were highly uncertain, and it was particularly unclear if Democrats—whose votes would certainly be needed on any package in the face of hardline Republican opposition—were on board, or even brought into any negotiations.
A government shutdown at risk, Johnson has been fighting to figure out how to meet Trump’s sudden demands—and keep his own job—while federal offices are being told to prepare to shutter operations ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline.
Trump said early Thursday that Johnson will “easily remain speaker” for the next Congress if he “acts decisively and tough” in coming up with a new plan to also increase the debt limit, a stunning request just before the Christmas holidays that has put the beleaguered speaker in a bind.
And if not, the president-elect warned of trouble ahead for Johnson and Republicans in Congress.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” Trump told Fox News Digital.
The tumultuous turn of events, coming just before Friday’s midnight deadline to fund the government and as lawmakers were preparing to head home for the holidays, sparks a familiar reminder of what it’s like in Trump-run Washington, as the Swamp-friendly backslapping of RINOs and Democrats colluding to fleece U.S. taxpayers on nebulous omnibus deals laden with pork grinds to an abrupt halt.
Trump led Republicans into the longest government shutdown in history during the 2018 Christmas season, and interrupted the lawmakers’ holidays in 2020 by tanking a bipartisan COVID-relief bill and forcing a do-over. However, Congress has itself to blame for waiting until the final deadline to try to broker a deal, while hoping the sense of panic and urgency will allow less scrutiny of the final product.
It has been 28 years since Congress last passed a budget on time, as Reason magazine noted in April 2023. Instead, it has routinely relied on the continuing resolution process to forestall making potentially difficult or unpopular decisions on where to trim the fat.
For Johnson, who faces his own problems ahead of a Jan. 3 House vote to remain speaker, Trump’s demands kept him working long into the night to broker a new deal. Vice President-elect JD Vance joined the late-night meetings at the Capitol, bringing his young son in pajamas.
“We had a productive meeting. We’re going to continue to work through the night, in the morning to get, to get an agreement,” said Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., as he left the speaker’s office late Wednesday.
As Democrats seethed over the influence that billionaire Elon Musk had in derailing the original CR agreement, some fiscal conservatives floated the idea of giving Musk the speaker’s gavel, since the speaker is not required to be a member of the Congress.
The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress . . .
Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk . . . think about it . . . nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’…
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 19, 2024
But adding an increase in the debt ceiling to what had been a bipartisan package is a show-stopper for Republicans who routinely vote against more borrowing.
The current debt limit expires on Jan. 1 2025 and threatens to bog down the start of the new administration with months of negotiations to raise it. Trump wants the problem off the table before he joins the White House.
As senior Republicans broke from a Thursday morning meeting in the House speaker’s office there was no resolution yet.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the third-ranking Republican in leadership, said the situation was “fluid.”
Federal funding is scheduled to expire at midnight Friday, a current temporary government funding bill running out as Congress was preparing a new one to keep things running for a few months.
House Democrats emerged from a closed-door meeting Thursday angry about the collapse of bipartisan legislation, saying a deal is a deal and that they were standing by the agreement they reached with Johnson and Republicans.
Trump’s new demands for a debt-limit increase were “premature,” claimed Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
“This reckless Republican driven shutdown can be avoided,” Jeffries said. Republicans should “simply do what is right for the American people and stick with the bipartisan agreement that they themselves negotiated.”
While Democrats have floated their own ideas in the past for lifting, or even doing away with the debt-limit caps that have created some of the toughest debates in Congress, they appear to be in no bargaining mood to save Johnson from Trump—even before the president-elect is sworn into office.
“Here we are once again in chaos,” said House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, who detailed the harm a government shutdown would cause Americans. “And what for? Because Elon Musk, an unelected man, said, ‘We’re not doing this deal, and Donald Trump followed along.’”
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget had provided initial communication to agencies about lapse planning last week, according to an official at the agency.
Late Wednesday, the Republicans floated a new idea for a scaled-back bill that would simply keep the government running and provide the disaster assistance to hurricane ravaged regions.
But almost as soon as it was being mentioned, Trump posted on social media he didn’t like that plan either.
Scalise said he understands Trump “wants to start the presidency on a sound footing and we want him to as well.”
But, Scalise said, “obviously we’ve got to get through this first and we’re going to get it resolved, hopefully tomorrow.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
