With a government shutdown looming, Democrats on Thursday lashed out against Republicans' failed end-of-year spending bill, which Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal warned would allow U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's "unelected billionaire friends to control the government and enrich themselves at the expense of working people."
Congress has until Friday night to avert a federal government shutdown by passing a continuing resolution. After Trump thwarted a measure that took months to negotiate, House Republicans reached a short-term agreement on Thursday that would keep the government funded for the next three months and suspend the debt ceiling until 2027. It also included approximately $110 billion in disaster relief funding, a key Democratic demand.
However, the House rejected the bill late Thursday. The vote was 174-235, with 38 Republicans voting against the proposal and two Democrats approving the package.
This, after Trump and multibillionaire Elon Musk—who the president-elect has tapped to co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency—on Wednesday torpedoed an earlier spending plan put forth by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) after negotiations with Democratic lawmakers.
According toPolitico, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) ripped Thursday's GOP proposal as "laughable" during an afternoon press conference.
"Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown," said Jeffries, who added in a later meeting with Democratic Caucus members: "I'm not simply a no. I'm a hell no" on the GOP proposal.
Decrying proposed cuts to child healthcare in the bill—specifically, the elimination of $190 million in pediatric cancer research—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said on social media Thursday that Republicans are "cutting healthcare to kids because Elon gets his money from defense contracts so they'll never touch the military budget."
On Wednesday, the Senate passed an $895 billion military spending bill that now awaits Democratic President Joe Biden's signature.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was one of numerous progressives who took aim at Musk, writing on social media Thursday that the world's richest person "is threatening to unseat elected officials if they do not follow his orders to shut down the government during the holidays."
"Are we still a democracy or have we already moved to oligarchy and authoritarianism?" Sanders added.
Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a
statement Thursday that "any shutdown is a 100% Republican shutdown, and the effects on working people will be devastating."
Japayal continued:
Shadow President Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump are billionaires who don't even know what it's like to worry about where the next rent check comes from, how they will pay for the medications they need, or what happens if the [Federal Aviation Administration] shuts down and families can't go and visit their loved ones for the holidays. And yet they are leading scaredy-cat Republican members of Congress into chaos, barely 12 hours after congressional Democrats and Republicans had reached a bipartisan deal to keep the government open and provide critical funding to communities ravaged by natural disasters, support to vulnerable farmers facing bankruptcy, and childcare and Social Security checks to kids and seniors across this country.
"Derailing a deal to keep the government functioning means a devastating holiday shutdown that would cause millions of essential workers to go without pay, families to be evicted, flights delayed during the busiest travel season, and potential disruptions to Social Security or Medicare services," Jayapal stated.
"The Progressive Caucus stands with Leader Jeffries and our full Democratic Caucus to demand passage of the negotiated deal to fund government and ensure we protect communities across this country," she added. "We cannot succumb to a government by billionaires, for billionaires."
