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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/business/dealbook/musk-trump-government-shutdown.html
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Countdown to a shutdown
Washington is on the brink of crisis, as 38 House Republicans joined nearly all Democrats last night in rejecting a government funding plan backed by President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk. If a last-minute deal isn’t reached, the government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Eastern.
The chaos raises questions over how much control the president-elect and Musk have over the Republican Party as it prepares to gain control of the White House and Congress. And it offers corporate America and the markets an ominous preview of the next four years. (Andrew joined a discussion with The Times’s Michael Barbaro, Maggie Haberman and Catie Edmondson on today’s episode of “The Daily” about the political drama.)
“You never have any ounce of self-respect,” Representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican who voted against the deal, told his colleagues. He and other G.O.P. dissidents rejected the package because it would have allowed the government to borrow more money, something many have opposed for years. “To take this bill and congratulate yourself because it’s shorter in pages, but increases the debt by $5 trillion, is asinine,” he added.
Trump conceded concern about what comes next. The failed legislation would have suspended Washington’s borrowing cap until 2027. Failure to lift that limit would hurt Trump’s ability to introduce expansive tax cuts and increase border security spending. “Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” the president-elect wrote on social media.
Trump openly said this week that he would prefer a debt-ceiling increase to happen under President Biden so he could avoid taking heat for increased government borrowing.
Some in Congress questioned who’s really in charge of Republicans. Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, lamented that it was not clear whom Democrats need to negotiate with: “Is it Mike Johnson? Is he the speaker of the House? Or is it Donald Trump? Or is it Elon Musk?” (The crisis has set off speculation that Johnson’s tenure as speaker is in peril.)
