The Christmas tree at the Capitol in Washington, December 6, 2024 (AFP / Allison ROBBERT)
The US House of Representatives on Thursday largely rejected a new Republican budget text aimed at avoiding a paralysis of the federal state, a stinging failure which increases uncertainty before the fateful hour of Friday evening midnight.
The elected Republicans, despite having a majority in the lower house, had submitted this new proposal to a vote the day after the torpedoing by Donald Trump and Elon Musk of a previous agreement negotiated with the Democrats which would have avoided a “shutdown” in the United States 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 Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, expressed his opposition to this proposal, “not serious” and “laughable” according to him.
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.
After the announcement that there would be no other vote on Thursday evening, Mike Johnson promised that elected officials would “come together and find another solution”.
“If there is a + shutdown + of the government, let it start now, under (President Joe) Biden, but not under + Trump + (…) This is a problem that Biden must solve, but if the Republicans can help (…) they will!” Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Friday morning.
– Christmas “Shutdown” –
Time is running out before the fateful hour of midnight Friday evening.
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.
A supporter of Donald Trump in front of the Republican’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach (Florida), December 5, 2024 (AFP / CHANDAN KHANNA)
The likelihood of a “shutdown” was greatly increased when Donald Trump expressed his disapproval on Wednesday of a bill negotiated by Republicans in Congress with Democrats, deemed “ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive” by the president-elect.
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 mandate, not bothering with conventions, even if it means causing a certain chaos.
The future president was not the only one to dynamite the first agreement.
“Kill the text!”, launched his ally Elon Musk on his social network
– Veto –
The boss of Tesla and SpaceX, on the other hand, affirmed to support the new Republican proposal which notably included a provision wanted by Donald Trump: an extension of the deadline on the debt ceiling to January 2027.
The future president had in fact expressed his virulent opposition to the first agreement in part because of the absence of such a clause in the text.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump during a Republican meeting in Butler (Pennsylvania), October 5, 2024 (AFP / Jim WATSON)
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.
The White House spoke out against the new text before the vote in Congress.
“Republicans are following the orders of their billionaire donors at the expense of hard-working Americans,” President Biden’s spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre blasted in a statement.
A large number of elected Democrats also denounced the influence of the richest man in the world in the decisions of the Republican camp.
“Donald Trump and elected Republican officials have bowed their heads to the real president-elect, Elon Musk,” criticized New York elected official Nydia Velazquez.
