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After Trump and Musk's Attempt to Sink Deal, House Votes to Avert Government Shutdown
The final spending bill, also approved by the Senate, includes long-awaited disaster relief and excludes Trump's last-minute request to raise the debt ceiling.
Dec 21, 2024
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill 366-34 on Friday night to continuing funding the government, averting the shutdown that loomed after Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump sank a bipartisan spending agreement earlier in the week.
The Senate then approved the continuing resolution 85-11 early Saturday, which will keep the government funded at current levels through March 14. It also included the disaster relief and aid to farmers that were central pieces of the original bipartisan legislation and excluded Trump's last-minute demand to raise the debt ceiling.
However, it was significantly smaller than the original bill—slashed from 1,500 to 118 pages—and the cuts included healthcare expansion for older Americans, a plan to lower prescription drug prices, and an apprenticeship program for young people.
"The precedent that has been set today in Congress should upset every American who believes in our democratic form of government."
"Tonight, in a victory for the American people and a loss for Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the House passed legislation to keep the government open, provide $100 billion in critical disaster relief to communities across America, and fund $10 billion in aid for struggling farmers and ranchers," outgoing Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash) said in a statement.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also celebrated the averted shutdown.
"We stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government and crashing the economy," he wrote on Bluesky. "The American people have won this round. Far-right billionaires have lost. The struggle continues in the new year."
The bill's passage capped a whirlwind few days in the U.S. House after Musk—the richest man in the world whom Trump has appointed to co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency—spent all of Wednesday tweeting against the original spending package released by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday. After Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance joined Musk's crusade against the bill, Johnson refrained from bringing it to the floor.
Instead, he attempted to pass another bill on Thursday that would have raised the debt limit through 2027, in accordance with Trump's request. That bill was voted down 174-235, with only two Democrats voting in favor and 38 Republicans rejecting it. Johnson then briefly considered passing individual bills Friday morning before introducing the proposal that finally passed with the support of 170 Republicans and every Democrat except Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), who voted present.
"We forced President-elect Trump and Shadow President Elon Musk to back down from the 11th-hour demand to pass a suspension of the debt ceiling, a move that would have paved the way for a Trump Tax Scam 2.0 that would once again send trillions of dollars to the billionaires and giant corporations while cutting Social Security and Medicare for working people and poor people to pay for those tax cuts to the wealthiest," Jayapal said. "Democrats forced Republicans to back down and, when we enter a Republican trifecta, it will be on Republicans to deliver all the votes for such a scam. Democrats won’t bail them out—on that or any of their policies that cater to the wealthiest in America at the expense of working people and struggling Americans."
The passage of the disaster aid was celebrated by more than 50 storm and fire survivors who had sent a delegation to Congress last week to share their stories and demand that Congress fully fund recovery efforts, as federal dollars for relief have been delayed by over two years.
"We commend Republicans and Democrats for prioritizing disaster aid—this is how it should be," said Amanda Devecka-Rinear, co-founder of an organization of Superstorm Sandy survivors. "But the maneuvering we just witnessed, including an unelected billionaire holding disaster aid hostage via the social media platform that he owns, once again underscores how precarious the reality is for disaster survivors in America. And we will continue to stand together to get our communities home and whole."
While Devecka-Rinear said the funding "represents a significant step forward," she added that it was "not the finish line."
"Stopgap measures like this cannot continue to be the norm," she said. "We need a disaster recovery system that families can successfully navigate. Survivors deserve reliable, sustainable, and permanent funding."
Zoe Middleton, the associate director for just climate resilience for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, also called for a permanent disaster-relief solution.
"Communities need and deserve robustly funded recovery programs to get back on their feet in the weeks and months following a disaster," Middleton said in a statement. "Allowing funding for short-term relief to run dry and making communities wait on long-term recovery assistance can push families into debt or leave them homeless and can also cause lasting economic scars on local economies."
She continued: "People across the country are losing their homes and livelihoods to the climate crisis while fossil fuel companies continue to rake in profits. In addition to passing this short-term, stopgap funding, Congress should invest in measures that prepare climate-vulnerable communities for disasters before they strike and permanently authorize Community Development Block Grants to ensure people aren't forced into desperate straits after they've experienced the worst."
The bill's passage also sets the stage for the coming year, in which Republicans will control the presidency, House, and Senate—foreshadowing future fights and revealing the extent of Musk's influence over the future president and Republican lawmakers.
During closed-door negotiations, Republican House members on Friday shared a slide showing a draft agreement to swap $2.5 trillion in spending cuts for a $1.5 trillion debt-ceiling increase next year. Cuts could target essential programs including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and federal nutrition assistance.
"Republicans are already taking cues from Elon Musk and his DOGE commission and clearing the deck to ram through giant tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy," Groundwork Collaborative executive director Lindsay Owens said in a statement. "Their plans for the new year are crystal clear: Cut trillions from Social Security, Medicare, and other critical programs to pay for their own massive tax cuts."
Jayapal said that Democrats would need "spines of steel to oppose all of the ways in which Republicans inflict cruelty on America's working people and poor people who are still struggling to get by and deserve so much more."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who voted against the continuing resolution, lamented key provisions that had been cut from the spending bill after Musk and Trump's opposition. These included measures to expand primary healthcare, mental healthcare, substance abuse counseling, and nutrition programs for older Americans; boost vocational training for 100,000 young people; and attempt to regulate Pharmacy Benefit Managers, who inflate prescription drug costs.
"These important proposals, negotiated by Democrats and Republicans for months and agreed to by both sides of the aisle, were stripped from this bill by an unelected billionaire named Elon Musk," Sanders said. "Musk, the richest person on Earth, threatened to use his fortune to unseat any member of Congress who would have voted for the original bipartisan legislation."
Sanders concluded: "The precedent that has been set today in Congress should upset every American who believes in our democratic form of government. It appears that from now on no major legislation can be passed without the approval of the wealthiest person in this country. That's not democracy, that's oligarchy."
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As 'Republican Shutdown' Nears, Dems Say 'Hell No' to Trump-Backed Spending Bill
"They're cutting healthcare to kids because Elon gets his money from defense contracts so they'll never touch the military budget," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Dec 19, 2024
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."
Here’s the situation: There was a bipartisan deal to stop a government shutdown. But now, shadow President Elon Musk is calling the shots and Mike Johnson, Trump, and Republicans are falling in line. It’s clear who’s in charge.
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— Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (@jayapal.house.gov) December 19, 2024 at 6:42 AM
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."
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Why Did Trump Win? Because Democrats Aren't Up In Arms Over Mass Layoffs
GM just told 1,000 workers they're jobs are gone. But I haven’t heard Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, or any other leading Democrat say a critical word about it.
Nov 23, 2024
At the same time Democrats and progressives are justifiably enraged at Trump’s gonzo Cabinet picks, they’re all but mute about corporate America’s continued siphoning of economic gains to the top.
Yet this siphoning has created the stagnant wages and insecure jobs that helped propel Trump into the presidency and give Republicans control over both chambers of Congress.
Trump at least gave workers an explanation for what’s happened to them — although it was a lie: It isn’t undocumented immigrants or the “deep state” or transgender kids or any other Trump bogeyman.
It’s corporate greed.
The most recent example: On Friday, GM announced it was laying off 1,000 workers. These layoffs followed another round of GM layoffs in August, which saw 1,500 jobs cut. The cuts affected both salaried and hourly staff, including some United Auto Workers members.
Why aren’t Democrats, who still control the Senate and presidency, moving more aggressively to outlaw stock buybacks — which were considered illegal stock manipulations before Ronald Reagan’s SEC gave them the green light?
Most of the workers being laid off Friday were notified via email early Friday morning. Some had been working for GM for over thirty years.
GM says it has no choice. It must cut costs.
This is what we hear again and again from corporate America. We’ll be hearing even more of this as Artificial Intelligence takes over white-collar as well as blue-collar jobs.
No choice?
GM is on track for making record profits this year, surpassing its 2022 record profit of $14.5 billion. In the third quarter of 2024 alone, GM made $3.4 billion. That’s a $200 million increase from the same period last year.
GM CEO Mary Barra’s compensation for 2024 is $27.8 million. This includes a base salary of $2.1 million, stock awards of $14.6 million, stock option awards valued at $4.9 million, an “incentive plan” compensation (as if she needed more incentive) of $5.3 million, other payment of $997,392, and perks (personal travel, security, financial counseling, company vehicles, and an executive health plan) valued at $389,005.
The ratio of Barra’s compensation to that of the typical GM employee is estimated to be 303-to-1.
In June, GM announced $6 billion in stock buybacks. This means $6 billion of GM’s record profits will be used to purchase its own shares of stock — thereby boosting share prices (and the portion of Barra’s compensation in stock grants and options) simply because fewer shares of GM stock will be in circulation.
Keep in mind that the richest 1 percent of American hold over half of the value of all shares of stock held by Americans, and the richest 10 percent hold 92 percent.
So, in fact, GM’s savings from axing 1,000 jobs will be transferred into the pockets of wealthy Americans (including GM’s CEO).
Why aren’t Democrats up in arms about this? I haven’t heard Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, or any other leading Democrat say a critical word about GM’s latest move.
Democrats have offered no alternative explanation for what’s happened to average working people or agenda for remedying it. Trump's baseless explanation and agenda are the only ones available. So it’s no surprise that many working Americans voted for Trump on Election Day.
Why isn’t Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer — who may be in the running for president in 2028 (assuming we have another election) — accusing GM of sacrificing jobs for profits that are siphoned off to big investors?
Why aren’t Democrats, who still control the Senate and presidency, moving more aggressively to outlaw stock buybacks — which were considered illegal stock manipulations before Ronald Reagan’s SEC gave them the green light?
Why aren’t they demanding that capital gains taxes be increased on the super-wealthy, whose stock gains this year alone have made America’s billionaires 30 percent richer?
Why aren’t they moving to increase corporate taxes on corporations whose ratio of CEO pay to their median workers is more than 50 to 1? And impose even higher taxes if the ratio exceeds 100 to 1? (Senate Budget Committee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse, along with Representatives Barbara Lee and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have introduced just such a bill, but no one knows about it. Why isn’t the Democratic leadership loudly pushing this?)
The lesson of the debacle of the 2024 election is that big corporations and the wealthy have shafted average working Americans, whose wages and jobs have gone nowhere for decades and who are understandably frustrated and angry at what they see as a rigged system.
But Democrats have offered no alternative explanation for what’s happened to average working people or agenda for remedying it. Trump's baseless explanation and agenda are the only ones available. So it’s no surprise that many working Americans voted for Trump on Election Day.
Now Trump and his Republican stooges think they’ve been given a license to blow the system up — initially by appointing a bunch of clowns, conspiracy theorists, and sexual predators to key posts.
It’s important to rail against Trump’s appointments. But unless we attack the sources of the outrage Trump has tapped into, working Americans will continue to go along with whatever Trump and his lapdogs want to do.
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