President-elect Donald Trump is displeased that the House of Representatives passed
a spending bill on Friday night that did not include an extension or elimination of the debt ceiling. Passage came just hours ahead of a potential government shutdown. The Senate is currently considering the measure.
The legislation, which funds the government for three months, easily cleared the two-thirds threshold to suspend the rules and pass the lower chamber. Lawmakers green-lit the bill 366-34
thanks to 196 Democratic and 170 Republican votes in favor. All 34 votes against were cast by Republicans.
On Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) scrapped
an earlier funding bill after Elon Musk and Trump came out against
it. Seemingly of nowhere, Trump demanded the House raise or abolish the debt ceiling, which sets a limit on how much money the federal government may borrow. The debt ceiling has occasionally been used as a cudgel by congressional Republicans against Democratic presidents. Not surprisingly, Democratic lawmakers have signaled
a willingness to back its elimination.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” Trump told
Fox News Digital on Thursday.
However, no debt ceiling provision was included in the legislation that passed on Friday.
Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett reported that Trump was irked by this development.
“Trump is NOT happy that the spending deal doesn’t include the debt ceiling, according to [a] person who spoke with him this p.m.,” Everett posted
on X. “Not clear he’ll publicly try to stop the bill in the Senate but Trump’s not thrilled the bill doesn’t contain his main ask[.]”
As of this writing, the president-elect has not publicly commented on the bill’s passage.
Steve Bannon, President-elect Donald Trump’s one-time chief strategist, said in a Friday interview he is in favor of taxing corporations and the wealthy.
Bannon
told Semafor’s David Weigel that breaking away from some of the GOP’s long-held economic positions could help cement Trump’s
legacy and that he views the soon-to-be president as a historic figure.
“This is a 1932-type realignment, if we do this right,” Bannon explained
. “Look at the demographics that got us here – black, Hispanic, white, working class, all of it. If we deliver for these people, and I mean deliver in a big way economically, then this is a coalition that could last for 50 years.”
He added that loyalty to “crony capitalism” and “tax breaks for the corporations” could “squander” a unique moment in history.
Bannon was asked about Trump’s wealthiest supporters and how he should square away an economic policy that benefits billionaires and working-class voters. Bannon said Trump could serve the latter by hiking tax rates for the former:
Since 2008, $200 billion has gone into stock repurchases. If that had gone into plants and equipment, think what that would have done for the country. I’m for a dramatic increase in corporate taxes. We have to increase taxes on the wealthy. For getting our guys’ taxes cut, we’ve got to cut spending, which they’re gonna resist. Where does the tax revenue come from? Corporations and the wealthy. And when they start squealing, we have a conversation.
He added, “We’re all partners in this, everybody’s going to take a little pain, but the working people are going to take less pain than you guys.”
Bannon also criticized Republicans such as former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who he said made promises to voters that were never delivered on.
“There has to be no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security,” Bannon told Weigel. “Guess what that’s gonna do? You get DOGE and OMB to do cuts in year one — not this Kevin McCarthy bullshit where you have $2 trillion of cuts, but they’re all in year nine and ten, so they never materialize. Real cuts.”
The House of Representatives finally passed a three-month funding bill ahead of a possible a government shutdown on Friday night.
The bill will now head to the Senate for consideration. It is unclear if the Senate will vote on the legislation before the shutdown begins at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday. If it passes the upper chamber, President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law.
The legislation required a two-thirds majority to pass because Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) fast-tracked the resolution by circumventing the House Rules Committee. It passed 366-34
thanks to 196 Democratic votes in favor. All 34 votes against were cast by Republicans.
On Wednesday, Johnson scrapped
another funding bill after Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump came out against
the measure. Johnson tried again on Thursday by putting a smaller bill on the floor, but that legislation came up well short of the votes necessary to pass.
The bill passed by the House did not include a provision – favored by Trump – to raise or eliminate the debt ceiling, which limits the amount of debt the federal government may incur.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) predicted Friday afternoon that House Democrats could step in to save Speaker Mike Johnson if he is in danger of not being reelected to his position in the next Congress come January.
Speculation about Johnson’s
future swirled Friday as the House prepared to vote for a third time to pass a bill to fund the federal government. Johnson’s initial 1,500-page bipartisan bill to keep the lights on until March 14 was torpedoed by President-elect Donald Trump.
A second bill written by Republicans also failed to pass. A third bill to avert a shutdown passed
on Friday night, but Johnson’s future remains in doubt.
The political crisis led to speculation Johnson could face the same fate as former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy lost the gavel in a historic move last October after eight House Republicans sided with Democrats on a motion to vacate filed by former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz.
In a comment obtained by HuffPost senior politics reporter Igor Bobic, Romney said Friday he believed if Johnson faced an effort from within his own party to remove him, Democrats would intervene.
“There may be an effort to blow everything up but I don’t think — I think the Democrats are smarter than that,” the Utah Republican said. “They’d give him support.”
Romney says Mike Johnson could survive as speaker but may need Dem support:
“There may be an effort to blow everything up but I don’t think — I think the Democrats are smarter than that. They’d give him support.”
A fed-up Jake Tapper told Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) that congressional Republicans are incapable of governing.
At issue is the latest quasi-regular threat of a government shutdown, which will happen at 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday if the House, Senate, and president do not agree on a resolution to continue funding the government. The main culprit is the Republican-controlled House, whose members cannot agree on a bill. On Wednesday, it appeared a large 1,547-page bill to keep the government open until March would sail through Congress. However, Elon Musk came out against
the measure, after which President-elect Donald Trumpfollowed suit
. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pulled
the bill. The next day, the House failed to pass a much smaller version.
On The Lead on CNN, Tapper spoke with Lawler about a new bill ahead of a much-anticipated vote on Friday night. The lawmaker slammed President Joe Biden for not being involved in the process.
“But where is Joe Biden?” Lawler asked. “He’s the sitting president of the United States. Nobody has heard a word from Joe Biden or the White House. And we’re eight hours away from a government shutdown. You know, this is why Washington is so broken. You talk about the fact that we got to this point of a government shutdown? Go down the hall in the Senate. Chuck Schumer passed exactly zero appropriations bills through the Senate floor this year.”
“I certainly understand what you’re saying,” Tapper replied. “But at the same time, with all due respect, Sir, you’re going after the top Democrat in the Senate and a lame-duck Democratic president. Your conference, the House Republican conference, we go through this every single time Republicans control the House. You guys can’t pass legislation. You can’t govern.”
Lawler objected to the host’s characterization.
“We’ve passed a lot of legislation that is languished down the hall in the Senate,” he responded.
“Government funding legislation,” Tapper shot back. “Every time, we go through this.”
Lawler again hit out at Schumer for not taking up the House’s appropriations bills.
“Senate Democrats are in control in the Senate, and Joe Biden is in control of the White House,” the congressman said. And by the way, again, I reiterate, where is Joe Biden? Why has he not weighed in at all?”
Fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused any Republican Senator who votes against Tulsi Gabbard to lead the U.S. intelligence community of being “an enemy” of the country during a wild Thursday night speech.
Carlson joined the likes of Steve Bannon and Donald Trump Jr. in addressing Turning Point USA’s annual “America Fest” conference
in Phoenix.
Carlson, who recently sparked controversy for an interview
with far-left economist Jeffrey Sachs about Syria and Israel, has long been a defender of Gabbard – the former hard-left Democratic congresswoman Donald Trump has nominated to be director of national intelligence. Carlson told Sachs during his interview earlier in the week that he can’t understand “Why am I required to hate Assad?”
“Tulsi Gabbard went and met with Assad. She’s been attacked
ever since. Has anyone ever explained why Americans should hate Assad?” Carlson demanded of Sachs, who spent most of the interview attacking U.S. intelligence agencies.
Carlson told the crowd of young Trump supporters in Arizona, “She served in the U.S. military for 20 years. So, by the way, if she was a foreign agent, how exactly was she carrying a gun in the U.S. military? It’s absurd.”
“You will know who’s on which side by the reaction of Tulsi Gabbard. If there are Republican senators who are voting against Tulsi Gabbard confirmation, then either in the Intel committee or in the open Senate, you will know that person is not only my enemy as someone who voted for change, for openness, for transparency, for an end to corruption, for draining of the swamp. You know, that person is an enemy of the United States. Period,” he raged.
“It’s really that simple. And you will get the same story. It’s national security. We can’t let our enemies know. We can’t trust Tulsi Gabbard. No, we can’t trust you,” Carlson concluded.
Gabbard, who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020 and was a fierce critic of Trump, is seen as having a tough road ahead in the Senate.
Reuters reported this week that “eight Republican senators are unsure about supporting former Democratic member of congress Tulsi Gabbard to become America’s top spy, according to a Trump transition source and a second source with knowledge of the issue, increasing doubts about whether her nomination will secure Senate confirmation.”
Gabbard has long sparked criticism for her statements on the war in Ukraine, which have been seen as being pro-Russia. Gabbard’s 2017 visit to meet with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and the kind words she had for him afterward have also made headlines in recent days, following the brutal dictator’s fall and further revelations of the crimes against humanity he committed while oppressing his population. In the past, she adamantly opposed Trump’s foreign policy, going so far as to call
him Saudi Arabia’s “bitch.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) answered the question on nobody’s mind on Friday morning, when she informed her followers on X that she would not, in fact, have sex with far-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec.
Mace voted against a bill to fund the government supported by President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday, an act that Posobiec
— who is most famous for pushing
the falsehood that a pizzeria in Washington, D.C. serves as a front for the trafficking of children — took exception to, and responded to by raging against her on X.
“Why did you vote to send Steve Bannon to jail in a J6 show trial orchestrated by Liz Cheney and Nancy Pelosi?” he asked in one post
.
In others, he captioned evidence of Mace expressing her support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia by writing “Budget hawk”
and “Fiscal conservative”
in scare quotes.
Under fire from many on the right Thursday night, Mace explained
her vote in a post.
“This CR had the same level of spending today as it did yesterday, but the debt ceiling was suspended, meaning there was no limit on the debt. I don’t trust Congress or the government to spend responsibly without any limits. I cannot in good conscience vote to continue Joe Biden spending levels months into Trump’s presidency,” she wrote. “If we did a very short CR that took us to Jan. 20th only or if we had single subject votes on the spending measures inside the bill – there likely would have been a lot more support. We are $36 trillion in debt. We have to get this right.”
Then on Friday morning, she lobbed a broadside at Posobiec.
“Two words for Jack Poso: Would Not,” began Mace
. “Not sure what his obsession of me is all about. It’s weird. We need more strong, intelligent, conservative women who love the Constitution and support Donald Trump. I won’t be bullied by Jack. Or any one.”
Two words for Jack Poso: Would Not.
Not sure what his obsession of me is all about. It’s weird. We need more strong, intelligent, conservative women who love the Constitution and support Donald Trump.
Naturally, the proclamation sparked still more incredible content.
“Can we get through one policy disagreement or perhaps, say, a prayer breakfast, without Nancy Mace bringing up having sex in some weird way?” wondered
Posobiec.
“Every time I see one of her tweets, I assume it is a parody account. Remarkable how many lawmakers makers are clearly unstable,” mused
conservative commentator Bethany Mandel.
“Well this is bizarre to say the least… Jack is a married man with an amazing wife and family? Just odd,” submitted
the The Daily Caller’s Henry Rodgers.
And speaking of Posobiec’s wife, she took the cake when she responded
by declaring that “Honey, he’s not going a rent a Honda Civic when he’s got a Ferrari at home.”
