Trump issues spending bill ultimatum to Speaker Johnson as shutdown looms

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Dec 19, 2024

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President-elect Donald Trump urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to “act decisively” and reject compromise with Democrats on Thursday after Trump and Elon Musk torpedoed a spending deal to avert a government shutdown as soon as this weekend.

With a shutdown just hours away, Trump declared that he wants the GOP leader to force a new deal through Congress without making concessions, a virtually impossible mission since any deal would need Democratic support to pass.

“If the speaker acts decisively, and tough, and gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker,” Trump told Fox News Digital.

Trump also suggested Congress should eliminate the debt ceiling, a complicated and divisive issue that most Republicans have opposed, and pass a stopgap spending bill including only Republican priorities like aid to farmers.

He sought to blame Democrats and President Joe Biden for a potential shutdown even though it’s Republicans who are refusing to pass a spending bill.

“If there’s going to be a shutdown, we’re going to start it with a Democratic president,” Trump told NBC News.

Republican lawmakers were huddling late Thursday on a proposed Plan B spending bill that would cut a proposed pay raise for Congress that was in the previous deal.

It would include a “commitment” to raise the debt limit twice in 2025 to appease Trump but not permanently repeal it.

The president-elect and top supporter billionaire Elon Musk effectively sunk a deal that Johnson had struck with Democrats to fund the government through mid-March.

Unless Congress enacts a new spending plan, big chunks of the government would shut down starting this weekend and non-essential workers would be furloughed. Given the calendar, it’s unlikely anything would reopen until after New Year’s.

Democratic leaders say they will only support the stopgap spending deal with Johnston that both sides negotiated over several weeks.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said GOP dysfunction would be to blame for any shutdown.

He opposes repealing the debt ceiling as part of any last-minute deal.

“This reckless Republican-driven shutdown can be avoided if House Republicans will simply do what is right for the American people and and stick with the bipartisan agreement they negotiated,” Jeffries told reporters.

Musk, who has been tapped by Trump to lead a new budget cutting organization called the Department of Government Efficiency, took the first step in trashing Johnson’s deal on Wednesday, warning any Republican that supports it should be ousted from Congress.

He later said Congress should not pass any legislation until Trump returns to the White House, an edict that would result in a month-long government shutdown.

Along with funding the government, the sprawling so-called continuing resolution included $100 billion in aid for those impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton, aid to struggling for farmers and a grab bag of other priorities designed to attract votes from lawmakers in both parties.

Johnson pitched the plan as the best way to delay important decisions until the next Congress. After Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the Republican-majority House will hold a trifecta of power with the White House and Senate. He said Musk had been briefed on the deal.

Many Republican lawmakers opposed the bill because it includes what they consider to be unnecessary spending. But it was considered likely to pass anyway with wide Democratic backing.

But Musk, and later Trump, blew up that plan with their 11th hour attacks.

Republicans hold a narrow majority of a couple of seats in the House, but are unable to pass spending bills without Democratic support because some conservatives oppose all government funding measures without major cuts that most others oppose.

Any spending bill would also need to pass the Senate, which is still held by Democrats, and win the support of President Biden to sign it into law.

The ugly internal GOP feud could also endanger Johnson’s hold on the speaker’s gavel with a handful of right-wing lawmakers vowing to topple him in the next Congress.