Democrats blame 'President Musk' for looming shutdown

What happened

The House Thursday rejected a Republican spending package, pushed by President-elect Donald Trump, that would have kept the government running through March 14 and suspended the debt limit for two years. The 174-235 vote, with 38 Republicans joining 197 Democrats to sink the bill, fell short of a simple majority, much less the two-thirds support needed to pass it under fast-track rules. Without a spending bill signed by President Joe Biden, the federal government shuts down at midnight Friday.

Who said what

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) put together the spending bill with other Republicans Thursday, after a 12-hour online barrage of criticism from Elon Musk and, later, condemnation by Trump made him scrap a more expansive bipartisan package.

The 38 hardline conservatives voted against Johnson's new bill because it raised the debt ceiling — a last-minute demand from Trump. Democrats were "largely frustrated over how Republicans abandoned their previous agreement," The Washington Post said. Lawmakers had been preparing to leave for the holidays, Politico said, and the "shutdown blame game" began immediately.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Musk and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance tried to blame Democrats," arguing that Johnson's package had most of what they wanted from the bipartisan deal, The Associated Press said. Democrats, partly to "get under Trump's skin," aimed their criticism at the unelected Musk, The Wall Street Journal said. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said on the House floor that Republicans "got scared" because "President Musk said, 'Don't do it, don't do it, shut the government down.'" On X, which Musk owns, "'President Musk' became a trending topic," the Post said.

What next?

Johnson and other House GOP leaders "planned to work through the night and into Friday on a Plan C for funding the government," Politico said. "We will regroup, and we will come up with another solution," Johnson told reporters. "So stay tuned."