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US House Republicans have drafted a new spending bill that agrees with Donald Trump's demand for a two-year extension of the debt ceiling to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week.
The 116-page bill introduced Thursday extends government spending through March 14 and includes billions of dollars for communities devastated by natural disasters. The president-elect urged Republicans and Democrats to vote for the deal. “SUCCESS in Washington!” posted on his Social Reality platform
Democrats, however, rejected the proposal, questioning whether the Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson he had enough votes to win his new plan.
“The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters, referring to billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk. “It's funny. Extremist Maganese Republicans are pushing for a government shutdown. “
The House and Senate will need to move quickly to vote on the bill to send it to President Joe Biden for his signature before the Friday deadline, after which the government shuts down.
The second attempt comes later Trump sent House Republicans protesting the rejection of their first spending bill, negotiated by Johnson, the president-elect deemed “unacceptable”. The president-elect made an additional demand that lawmakers include a measure to increase the government's debt.
Musk put pressure on Johnson and Republicans in a series of social media posts on his platform X on Wednesday, criticizing the 1,500-page original bill as “ugly” and riddled with unnecessary spending and other measures.
The legislative crisis has put Johnson's leadership in doubt, as have members of the right Marjorie Taylor Greene thinking that Musk could replace him as Speaker.
The quip highlighted Johnson's vulnerability. Asked by NBC News Thursday morning if he still has hope for the Speaker, Trump said: “We'll see.”
The bill for the first three months to stop the gap has been negotiated between Johnson and Democrats, whose support he will need to pass the bill. It would have prevented a government shutdown by maintaining current spending levels until March 14, when Republicans will have control of Congress after a November election victory.
It also has unrelated benefits, including a pay raise for members of Congress and an easier way for the Washington Commanders American football team to move its stadium from Maryland to Washington, DC.
But the bill did not touch the debt ceiling, which is expected to expire in the first few months of Trump's second term. Trump called it a “democracy trap” and threatened Republicans that he would hold his primary challengers in the next election to vote to support short-term spending without raising the debt.
“There's not going to be anything approved unless a case is made,” Trump said ABC News. “If we don't get it, we will be banned, but it will be a Biden ban, because the ban goes to the person who is the president.”
In a sign of the targeted attacks that Trump and Musk have promised against Republicans who disobey their orders, Trump on Thursday singled out House Representative Chip Roy, who has always wanted to cut spending, for criticism.
“Chip Roy is another ambitious, talentless person,” Trump tweeted on Social Truth. “I hope that other talented challengers are preparing themselves in the Great State of Texas to follow Chip in the Primary. He won't stand a chance!”
Roy responded with an X that he would oppose the legislation anyway, nodding to concerns among Republican fiscal hawks. “New bill: $110BB in deficit spending (unpaid), $4 billion + $0 debt increase in structural reforms.”
The debt ceiling is a perennial problem for lawmakers, who suspended borrowing until January 1 in a deal reached last year. To borrow beyond this limit, the Treasury Department can use what it calls “extraordinary measures” to pay for new spending without breaking the limit.
This could buy the government time before it has to worry about a possible default – a devastating outcome for the world's largest economy and most important financial system.