- Speaker Mike Johnson's months-long prepared bipartisan deal found no support from his own party leading to its scrapping.
- Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy led a GOP rebellion against a stopgap reluctant unsupported nuanced bill to prevent government shutdown.
- Trump and Sen.-elect indicated towards passing a clean Continuing Resolution (CR) and raising the debt ceiling.
After months of deliberations, congressional leaders released a more than 1,500-page stopgap bill on Tuesday to fund the government through March 14 and avoid a shutdown on Friday, at midnight. But House Speaker Mike Johnson’s efforts to stop a government shutdown faltered as he found himself scrapping his bipartisan deal within 48 hours of proposing it — thanks to the pushback from his own party.
The newly created Department of Government Efficiency’s figureheads — Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — led the GOP rebellion, saying they’d prefer a government shutdown instead of passing a continuing resolution riddled with unrelated provisions.
Tuesday’s continuing resolution, or CR, included disaster assistance for farmers and hurricane relief, among other add-ons related to reforming health care, moving the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C., and giving lawmakers the first pay increase since 2009.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said a shutdown would “hurt the working class Americans (Republicans) claim to support,” in a post on X Wednesday. “You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”
The situation looked especially bleak for Johnson after former President Donald Trump told “Fox and Friends” host Lawrence Jones that he is “totally against” the CR on Wednesday afternoon. Hours later, Trump and Sen.-elect J.D. Vance issued a statement proposing a new idea: Pass a clean CR and raise the debt ceiling. Johnson, now pressed for time, is in a tricky situation that threatens his gavel.
What is President-elect Trump saying?
In 2023, Congress raised the debt ceiling through Jan. 1, 2025, “allowing the federal government to borrow as needed,” according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. But that isn’t a firm deadline — the U.S. Treasury Department can buy more time until Congress takes action.
Trump wants the debt ceiling debate to happen under President Joe Biden’s watch, according to the statement on X
“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,” the statement said. “And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give 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.”
The statement added, “If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF.”
What’s next?
It’s unclear whether Trump and Johnson will strike a deal, and whether the Democratic-controlled Senate will go along with the plan — all in time to avoid a shutdown less than a week before Christmas.
Should the effort fail, non-essential federal employees will be furloughed without pay. Essential employees, like members of the military and TSA agents, will continue to work, also without pay. A shutdown would not impact Social Security and Medicare.
Calls to replace Johnson as speaker grow louder as Congress reels from this past week’s failures. Sen. Mike Lee in a post on X Thursday morning said, “House Republicans should hire either (Musk) or (Ramaswamy) as their next speaker.”
Does the speaker have to be an elected member of Congress? The constitution says the House of Representatives can choose their speaker. There’s no language on whether the speaker can only be drawn from among the members of the House, according to NBC News.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy steer the ship
Musk and Ramaswamy unleashed a series of posts on X against the bulky spending bill on Wednesday.
“How can this be called a ‘continuing resolution’ if it includes a 40% pay increase for Congress?” he said in one post.
In another post, Musk said, “Either there is massive change or America goes bankrupt, therefore there must be massive change!”
Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who ran for the GOP nomination during the 2024 presidential race, in a video clip posted on TikTok said the bill is lengthy to deter Americans from reading it.
“I did you a favor. I read it for you,” said Ramaswamy. “It’s supposed to be about keeping government operations open and providing disaster relief aid to Hurricane victims, which I’m sympathetic to.” Ramaswamy listed out other special interest provisions and “pork funding” included in the bill.
“And the worst part is — they didn’t want you to know about any of it and that’s why they made this a last minute jam job.”
“The reason I’m co-heading DOGE is I think we need outsiders to bring actual accountability to Washington, D.C.,” he said, before asking citizens to call their representative to vote no on the CR.
Johnson said he spoke to Musk and Ramaswamy on Tuesday night. “Elon, Vivek and I were on a text chain together, and I was explaining to them the background of this. And Vivek and I talked last night, about almost midnight, and he said, ‘Look, I get it.’ He said, ‘We understand you’re in an impossible position. Everybody knows that.’”
“Remember, guys, we still have just a razor-thin margin of Republicans. So any bill has to have Democratic votes,” said Johnson, R-La. “They understand the situation. He said, ‘It’s not directed to you, Mr. Speaker, but we don’t like the spending.’ I said, ‘Guess what, fellas, I don’t either.’”