Trump blasts House government funding deal, demands debt ceiling hike

WASHINGTON – President-el Donald Trump said Thursday that he would rather House Republicans refuse to fund the federal government than for them to take up a funding bill that does not contain an increase in the debt ceiling.

“Republican obstructionists must be removed,” Trump published, referring to House GOP members refusing to support the debt ceiling increase that Trump wants. He identified the Texas Rep. Chip Roy, and accused him of “getting in the way, as usual, of having another Great Republican Victory.”

“Our country is much better off closing for a period of time than it is agreeing to the things that the Democrats want to impose on us,” the president-elect wrote on Social Truth.

House Republican leaders were running out of time Thursday to avoid a partial government shutdown that would begin late Friday night, after Trump and his allies sank a compromise bill to finance the government until March.

Senior members of the party spent much of Thursday going in and out of Speaker Mike Johnson’s offices on Capitol Hill, where conversations focused on finding a way to keep the federal government open while still satisfying Trump’s last-minute demand that any deal to finance the party. the government also raises the debt ceiling.

Still, even if House Republicans could craft funding language that appeases Trump and the warring factions in the GOP caucus, any bill they pass would still have to be approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate before the President Joe Biden signed it.

Meanwhile, outside leadership talks, members of the House and Senate were increasingly nervous that Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, could not find a way forward in time to avoid the potential furlough of tens of thousands. of federal employees across the country. that pay could be delayed less than a week before Christmas.

“A shutdown doesn’t solve anything. It doesn’t save us money. It just creates unnecessary chaos,” Rep. Republican Mike Lawler of New York said on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports.

“In order to pass anything, you have to have bipartisan support,” he said. “You need Democrats, at a minimum, in the Senate, but most likely in the House, to support a continuing resolution,” he said.

Thursday’s tension followed the public collapse on Wednesday of a massive, negotiated funding bill that would need Democratic votes to pass the closely divided House.

Of Trump formal opposition to the bill late Wednesday came only after the billionaire GOP megadonor Elon Musk he spent the day opposing the bill, gradually making it politically impossible for most of the House Republican conference to support it.

“Raising the debt ceiling is not great, but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch,” Trump said in a statement Wednesday announcing his opposition to Johnson’s original bill.

“If the Democrats don’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they will do it in June during our administration? We’re having this debate now. And we have to pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats whatever they want,” Trump said.

The debt ceiling has become a recurring and bitter debate in Washington every few years, and one that Trump is eager to avoid during the start of his second term.

But his demands and Thursday’s impasse could be too much for Johnson, who now faces a potential threat to his speakership, which is up for election early next year.

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.