House Republicans said they struck a deal on a short-term funding bill 24 hours after Elon Musk and Donald Trump derailed a resolution and steered the government into a shutdown the weekend before Christmas.
But congressional Democrats called the plan that Trump’s billionaire deputy blew up hours earlier “laughable.” House Democrats were heard chanting “hell no” as they met to review it on Thursday.
News of a newly hashed-out deal arrived one day after the world’s wealthiest person and the incoming president commanded members of Congress to reject a bipartisan stopgap funding bill as lawmakers prepared to vote.
Trump hailed the new deal as a “SUCCESS” and called on lawmakers to vote in support.
“It’s not serious, it’s laughable. Extreme MAGA Republicans are steering us towards a government shutdown,” Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Thursday.
“It’s an absolute slap in the face,” Democratic congreswoman Jill Tokuda told The Independent. “It’s disgusting that they would try to use this as a tool to increase the debt limit for two years, which we know will ultimately result in tax credits for the uber wealthy on the backs of our working people.”
Trump had called on lawmakers to abolish the debt ceiling, a limit set by lawmakers to determine how much money the federal government can borrow to pay its bills. It was last raised in 2023 through January 1, 2025.
A new deal proposed extending the “very unnecessary” ceiling through January 30, 2027, Trump said.
“Now we can Make America Great Again, very quickly, which is what the People gave us a mandate to accomplish,” Trump said.
Tennessee Republican congressman Tim Burchett told The Independent that the debt ceiling is “an arbitrary thing.”
“And reality is, I don’t know why they ever put a debt ceiling on anything,” he said.
Asked whether Musk and his incoming “Department of Government Efficiency” co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy will have an influence on an upcoming fight for House Speaker, he told The Independent: “Of course, they have to. I mean, they’re prominent people, and they have very big checkbooks.”
The new proposal would strip out provisions to criminalize the distribution of pornographic deepfakes, and cut funding for treatments of sick cell disease and breast and cervical cancer detection, among other provisions.
“Everything that was there to help with healthcare, the measures that were included to to attempt to help the average family, they’re all gone,” Democratic congresswoman Marcy Kaput told The Independent.
“Is he going to own the United States before it’s all over?” she said of Musk.
“He has a lot of personal interests here, and he’s not elected to anything,” she added. “Some people are calling him the president and President Trump the vice president. I have to do some homework on who this man really is.”
Trump had said that the country would be “far better off closing up for a period of time” than agreeing to a deal that was supported by both Republicans and Democrats until Musk spent Wednesday firing off dozens of social media posts condemning the deal and threatening to fund primary challengers against Republicans who voted for it.
“‘Shutting down’ the government (which doesn’t actually shut down critical functions btw) is infinitely better than passing a horrible bill,” Musk said.
Congress has until midnight Friday to approve a spending bill that would avert a government shutdown, with potential employee furloughs and service interruptions across federal agencies.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had hammered out a deal that extended government funding at its current levels until March, more than a month into Trump’s administration and a new Congress.
Shortly after the newly drawn Republican plan was announced, Republican congressman Chip Roy of Texas blasted the measure as a “watered-down version of the same crappy bill people were mad about yesterday,” he said on The Sean Hannity Show.
On his Truth Social, Trump lambasted Roy for “getting in the way” for “the sake of some cheap publicity for himself.”
“Republican obstructionists have to be done away with,” Trump added.
In another post, he called Roy “just another ambitious guy, with no talent.”
“By the way, how’s Bob Good doing?” said Trump, referencing the Virginia congresswoman who lost a primary election to a Trump-endorsed challenger; Good had supported Trump’s former rival Ron DeSantis.
“I hope some talented challengers are getting ready in the Great State of Texas to go after Chip in the Primary,” Trump said Thursday. “He won’t have a chance!”
Eric Garcia contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.
Source: independent.co.uk