Trump Torpedoes Government Funding Deal, Urging Johnson To Add Debt Limit Hike and Eliminate Disaster Relief for Hurricane Victims

President Trump is urging Speaker Johnson to gut the House’s bipartisan government funding agreement with just two days to go until the shutdown, risking travel and mail delays ahead of the Christmas holiday. Trump said anyone who doesn’t go along with his last-minute demands will be primaried in two years. Mr. Johnson introduced his government funding extension plan — which would have kept the government open until mid-March — late Tuesday, with a fierce backlash following shortly behind it. On Wednesday, as Mr. Johnson was thinking about bringing the spending extension to the floor on an expedited timeline, billionaire Elon Musk began to post online about how bad the deal was because it included $100 billion in hurricane disaster aid, several billion dollars in assistance for farmers, and some healthcare reforms. By Wednesday night, Trump had weighed in, saying that the plan should be scrapped altogether in exchange for a “clean” continuing resolution, or CR. The president-elect also demanded that the national debt ceiling be either raised or eliminated in its entirety ahead of the breach date that is more than six months away. “Sounds like the ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive Continuing Resolution, PLUS, is dying fast, but can anyone imagine passing it without either terminating, or extending, the Debt Ceiling guillotine coming up in June? Unless the Democrats terminate or substantially extend Debt Ceiling now, I will fight ‘till the end. This is a nasty TRAP set in place by the Radical Left Democrats!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday night. “If Republicans try to pass a clean Continuing Resolution [with] all of the Democrat ‘bells and whistles’ that will be so destructive to our Country, all it will do, after January 20th, is bring the mess of the Debt Limit into the Trump Administration,” Trump added in a follow-up post. “Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried.”Throughout the day, it seemed clearer and clearer that Mr. Johnson’s continuing resolution plan was going to die a quick death. Congressman Ralph Norman told the Sun on Wednesday afternoon that it would be “up to the speaker” to find a new path forward, or risk the president-elect’s wrath. The problem with Trump’s proposal is that the “clean” CR that he desires would also likely face opposition from some Republicans in states like North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, who have been waiting for months to deliver much-needed relief to their home states in the wake of a devastating hurricane season. Emerging from Mr. Johnson’s office on Wednesday night, Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna — who represents part of the western coast of Florida — told reporters that she was expecting to see a clean CR, plus the hurricane relief money. Two North Carolina Republicans — Senator Budd and Senator Tillis — said on X on Wednesday night that they would not vote for any funding deal that does not include hurricane relief money for their constituents. Mr. Tillis told the Sun that the government was likely to shut down on Friday night, and that while the debt ceiling lift would be hard for Republicans to get done because of “the mechanics,” he would push for such a deal as long as it included money for disaster victims. “We just need to see what’s gonna come out of the oven of the House,” Mr. Tillis said. “It’s happening because [Trump] is not happy with the package.”In the House, Republicans would have a hard enough time passing a clean CR and debt limit extension. The minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, told reporters on Wednesday night that he and Mr. Johnson had reached a fair agreement for government funding, and implied that Democrats would supply him approximately zero votes if he reneged on that deal. Yet even if Mr. Johnson could deliver that kind of win for Trump, it would likely go nowhere in the Senate. To pass a government funding extension would require 60 votes and the support for Senator Schumer — a threshold that will almost certainly not be met given how many Democratic spending priorities would be stripped from the bill in Trump’s ideal scenario. Late Wednesday night, Senator Murphy, who was expected to vote for the original House compromise that included farm aid and disaster relief, told reporters that if Republicans walked back on the bipartisan agreement, then there would be no appetite among Democrats to give the GOP any help. “Why would we help them pass the tax cut for billionaires, and corporations? They’re trying to clear space right now to be able to pass their billionaire tax cut. The people I represent hate that idea,” Mr. Murphy said. And again, even if the bill could pass the Senate, President Biden promised on Wednesday night that a clean CR plus a debt limit extension would be vetoed should it reach his desk.

Trump Torpedoes Government Funding Deal, Urging Johnson To Add Debt Limit Hike and Eliminate Disaster Relief for Hurricane Victims

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