The bipartisan federal spending plan heralded by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to avert a partial government shutdown has been scrapped as House Republicans, President-elect Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk joined in criticizing the deal, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Criticism of the 1,547-page spending package built steadily throughout the day and culminated with a lengthy statement by Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance posted late in the afternoon on Vance’s X account. It has forced Johnson back to the drawing board on a plan to prevent a Christmastime shutdown, the Post reported.
Musk, who will join multimillionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy as part of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency to deal with government spending waste, also weighed in on the news.
“Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead,” Musk posted on X after he spent the day criticizing the legislation. “The voice of the people has triumphed!”
Congress is facing a Friday deadline to reach a deal on federal spending through the early part of next year or face a partial government shutdown. The rejected bipartisan deal would have extended funding for existing government programs and services at their current operating levels through March 14, the Post reported. If a deal is not reached by 12:01 a.m. Saturday, funding for most of those programs will cease.
In their statement, Trump and Vance encouraged House Republicans to deal with the federal debt ceiling, which is expected to be reinstated on Jan. 1, instead of waiting for their administration, which begins Jan. 20.
The debt ceiling was suspended at $31.4 trillion when lawmakers passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 and its reinstatement, with the national debt now at $36.1 trillion, will force the Treasury Department to use extraordinary measures to temporarily keep the government from defaulting on its debt if it the ceiling is not raised.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on [President Joe] Biden’s watch,” Trump and Vance said. “If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.
“Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”
On Tuesday night, Johnson introduced the legislation that would send $110.4 billion to natural disaster survivors and codify a host of unrelated policy changes.
Late in negotiations, Johnson added an additional $10 billion in aid to farmers — which opened the floodgate for a slew of unrelated demands by Democrats to ensure the bill could pass the House and Democrat-controlled Senate, the Post reported. Those included transferring control of RFK Stadium to the District of Columbia, a pay raise for members of Congress, new regulations for health plan administrators, and federal funds to rebuild Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key bridge.
