The US House of Representatives on Thursday largely rejected a new Republican budget text aimed at avoiding a paralysis of the federal state before the deadline of midnight Friday evening.
• Also read: Possible budgetary paralysis: here are the consequences of a “shutdown” in the United States
• Also read: Veto by Trump and Musk: the United States close to budgetary paralysis
The elected Republican representatives, despite having a majority in the lower house, had submitted this new proposal to a vote after the torpedoing by Donald Trump and Elon Musk of a previous agreement negotiated with the Democrats which would have avoided paralysis in the United States (shutdown) just before Christmas.
The future American president had nevertheless given his blessing to the Republicans’ new text, welcoming “a very good agreement for the American people”.
Before the vote, the leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, had expressed his opposition to this proposal, “not serious” and “laughable” according to him.
Getty Images via AFP
And while two-thirds of the votes were necessary for adoption, the text did not even reach a simple majority, with 38 Republicans joining the Democrats’ “no”.
The path forward is now uncertain for the Republican President of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, pressed on the one hand by the Democrats to return to the negotiated agreement, and on the other by certain conservative elected officials who refuse all text which would not include a budget cut to compensate for the new aid.
Christmas shutdown
Time is running out before the fateful hour of midnight on the night of Friday to Saturday.
A paralysis of federal public services would lead to technical unemployment for hundreds of thousands of civil servants, the freezing of several social benefits or even the closure of certain daycare centers.
An extremely unpopular situation, especially as Christmas approaches.
Photo d’archives, AFP / GETTY IMAGES
The probability of a shutdown was greatly increased when Donald Trump expressed his disapproval on Wednesday of a bill negotiated in Congress by the Republicans with the Democrats, deemed “ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive” by the future president.
The twist took elected officials by surprise and gave a glimpse of a Trump 2.0 presidency even before the Republican took office on January 20, with a style – similar to his first term – not bothering with conventions, even to cause some chaos.
The future president was not the only one to torpedo the first agreement.
“Destroy this text!” had launched his ally Elon Musk in his social network X, in a long series of posts where he denounced unnecessary expenses according to him.
Several Republican elected officials published in X a photo appearing to show the difference in thickness between the first agreement and the new text. Initially consisting of 1,500 pages, the bill has been significantly reduced.
The new version “will keep the state open, fund our large farmers and others, and provide support to those severely impacted by devastating hurricanes,” Donald Trump wrote.
“A very important, vital component to our ‘America First’ agenda has also been added: the date of the very unnecessary debt ceiling has been pushed back by two years, to January 30, 2027,” he said. he rejoiced.
“Vicious trap”
Because the Republican had vetoed the first agreement with the Democrats, partly because of the absence in the text of an increase in the debt ceiling.
The United States has the particularity of regularly coming up against a legal constraint concerning its credit capacity: this debt ceiling, i.e. their maximum amount of debt, must be formally raised or suspended by Congress.
A suspension decided in 2023 expires at the beginning of January and the United States should reach the ceiling in June. Donald Trump therefore declared on Wednesday that he wanted to avoid, upon his return to power, this “vicious trap” set up, according to him, by the Democrats.
Before the announcement of a new proposal, the White House had denounced the risk of “instability” and “harming hard-working Americans”, which the Republicans brought to the people.
A large number of elected Democrats also denounced the influence of the richest man in the world in this turnaround.
“Donald Trump and elected Republican officials have bowed their heads to the real president-elect, Elon Musk,” criticized New York elected official Nydia Velazquez.
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