Trump on Wednesday — just days before federal funding is set to expire — said he wanted lawmakers to include an increase to the debt ceiling in the package, a politically fraught measure that would allow the Treasury Department to issue new debt to pay existing obligations.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch,” Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a joint statement Wednesday. “If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now.”
Trump in a social media post on Wednesday evening said he wanted to raise the debt limit under President Joe Biden’s watch, rather than after he takes office, adding that any Republican who doesn’t want to vote to raise the federal borrowing limit in this funding package is “stupid” and “should, and will, be Primaried.”
Congress must raise the debt ceiling before this summer to avoid a default that would have calamitous effects on markets and the economy.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, cut the federal funding deal with Democrats, a decision made to garner enough votes for the bill to pass the chamber. The amount of GOP opposition to the bill calls into question the longevity of his speakership, following his predecessor Kevin McCarthy’s ouster over Republican discontent over funding deals some lawmakers say spent too much and prioritized Democratic asks.
Trump and Vance called for a “streamlined” federal funding bill, asking Congress to pare back a package that largely provides for the government to continue to spend at current levels for the next three months. But the legislation also includes some sweeteners: $100 billion in disaster relief in the aftermath of devastating hurricanes and the collapse of Baltimore’s Key Bridge, an extension of the farm bill for one year with $10 billion in additional aid payments to farmers and $500 million for childcare funds.
If the measure fails, the government could see a partial shutdown as early as Saturday. But if the legislation passes, it would kick the next funding fight until mid-March, when the newly elected 119th Congress can pass more permanent federal funding.
“Triggering a damaging government shutdown would hurt families who are gathering to meet with their loved ones and endanger the basic services Americans from veterans to Social Security recipients rely on,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “A deal is a deal. Republicans should keep their word.”
The federal borrowing limit, which Congress suspended in 2023, is set to be reinstated early next year. The Treasury is expected to keep paying the government’s bills on time by using emergency measures that could last until the summer. After that, Congress would need to raise or suspend the ceiling or risk a default that could have calamitous effects on markets and the US economy.
The stopgap spending bill released Tuesday night was quickly met with resistance from the two men whom Trump has appointed to rein in government spending: Tesla Inc. and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy said the bill is “full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways (and) pork barrel politics.”
Musk posted a photo of what appeared to be a printout of the 1,547-page bill, saying, “Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?” In a separate post, he added “the more I learn, the more obvious it becomes that this spending bill is a crime.”
Together, Musk and Ramaswamy will head an organization called the Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, a loosely organized, tech-fueled effort to curtail in federal spending. Johnson told Fox News Wednesday that he was texting with the duo to address their concerns.
The legislation includes a grab bag of policy items that can often be poison pills for stopgap spending bills that are often stripped down to their essentials. Those policies include provisions on artificial intelligence-generated “deepfake” pornography, restrictions of outbound US investments in China and the transfer of RFK Stadium in Washington to the District of Columbia, clearing the way for the NFL Commanders football team to move their games to the site.
It does not contain a provision freezing congressional salaries, allowing for an automatic cost-of-living adjustment to go into effect for the first time since 2009. Members now make $174,000 a year.
Trump panned that provision in a social media post on Wednesday, saying “this is not a good time for Congress to be asking for pay increases. Hopefully, you’ll be entitled to such an increase in the near future when we, “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump can’t veto the bill; he won’t be president for another month. But he’s shown a willingness to use his influence over Republican lawmakers to oppose spending bills, like in September when he tried to hold up passage of a similar bill as leverage to get a voter identification law he favored. Congress ultimately passed a three-month spending extension without the elections provision.
Trump told “Fox and Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones that he believed the “fight starts now” rather than waiting until he was sworn in, Lawrence said in an additional post. The network subsequently reported the conversation on air.
During his first term, Trump presided over two government shutdowns — one lasting a record 35 days in a post-election period following the 2018 midterm elections.
