Tipsheet

Dems Fume Over Latest GOP Spending Bill

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  December 19, 2024 6:30 PM

As Jeff wrote earlier this afternoon, we have a new spending proposal from House Republicans after the first got scuttled due to a conservative revolt over the numerous spending projects as the shutdown deadline looms. The continuing resolution was 1,500 pages and loaded with nonsense, which led to the “cramnibus” moniker:

Most, it would seem, want a clean CR with no additional projects that could be settled at the start of the new Congress. President-elect Donald J. Trump supported this new measure. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) did not, calling it a watered-down version of the bill that got everyone in his caucus up in arms. Trump later called Roy an ambitious guy with no talent. He called for a primary challenge. While not perfect—nothing is up on the Hill—it’s a marked improvement:

“There is an agreement,” said Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.). Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) confirmed there was a deal among Republicans, though the news caught House Democrats by surprise. 

The plan Johnson is expected to put on the House floor later Thursday includes, according to three Republicans familiar with the deal, a stopgap measure that funds the government through mid-March, a clean farm bill extension, the $110 billion disaster aid package previously negotiated with Democrats, clean health care provision extenders and a two-year suspension of the debt limit, kicking a new deadline into January 2027. 

Meanwhile, Democrats are fuming over the bill, calling it MAGA extremism that will lead us into a shutdown. Yes, a clean CR with disaster relief for North Carolina is warrants a “hell no” reaction from the Left, at least that’s how Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reacted to this new proposal (via Politico): 

Speaking privately to members of his caucus minutes later, Jeffries told lawmakers: “I’m not simply a no. I’m a hell no,” according to three people familiar with his remarks, granted anonymity to speak about the meeting. 

Other Democratic lawmakers also expressed doubts about the legislation, which Republican leaders were teeing up for a vote Thursday evening. It would suspend the debt ceiling through early 2027, fund the government through March, and include billions in disaster relief funds, a top Democratic priority. 

The vote on the bill is scheduled to come up via a process called suspension, which means it needs to meet a two-thirds vote threshold to pass. If Democrats are roundly against it, it will fail on the floor — leaving Congress without an obvious solution to avoid a shutdown. 

“This was done on short notice,” said Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, who said he was opposed. “We reached an agreement on a bipartisan basis between the respective leadership and the membership of both parties, only to have an interruption take place and then a veto occurs after the agreement has been rendered and reached.” 

President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk worked to spike the original deal on Wednesday, sending the House careening down an alternate path with a deadline looming. 

“Elon Musk is not my constituent. My constituents are hard-working people who work very hard every day for every dime they have, and I'm sure as hell not bailing out on them in the final week,” said Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.), chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition. 

Top Democrats weren’t involved in the drafting of the legislation, and the unveiling caught senior lawmakers by surprise. 

“All I know is it was just reported by the press. We have not been involved in anything that they have done,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Appropriations Committee Democrat. 

Republicans argue the burden is now on Democrats to justify any opposition to a continuing resolution — “CR” for short — that averts a government shutdown and also prevents the U.S. from defaulting on its more than $36 trillion in debt next year. 

UPDATE: We’re likely heading for a shutdown: 

The shutdown blame game has already begun on Capitol Hill, a telltale sign that lawmakers don’t expect they can clear a funding plan before the Friday night deadline. 

Republicans’ revamped attempt at a stopgap spending bill is headed to the House floor Thursday evening but it’s almost certainly doomed, given it needs to meet a two-thirds threshold to pass the chamber and Democrats have vocally opposed it. 

Democrats have already dubbed it the Elon Musk shutdown, given the billionaire  publicly excoriated the original bipartisan spending deal and helped tank it on Wednesday. And Republicans are coming out swinging against Democrats after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged his fellow Democrats to vote against the hastily assembled package. 

[…] 

Democrats are fuming at Republicans for throwing out a bipartisan agreement that took weeks to negotiate, instead working out a new deal only within their own party and ignoring the reality that Democrats control the Senate and the White House for another month. And many of them are blaming Musk, as well as the so-called Department of Government Efficiency that he will lead next year. 

“Elon Musk ordered his puppet President-elect and House Republicans to break the bipartisan agreement reached to keep government open,” wrote former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on social media Thursday evening. “House Republicans are abdicating their responsibility to the American people and siding with billionaires and special interests.”

Government funding is set to expire at 12:01 AM on Saturday. 

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