Republicans say they have a deal, but will it work?published at 21:49 Greenwich Mean Time
Cai Pigliucci
Reporting from Capitol Hill
The stakes couldn’t be higher.
Congress is set to leave Washington tomorrow, the holidays are looming and – if lawmakers can’t pass a spending bill in just under 32 hours – the US government will shut down.
All day long, Republicans had been going in and out of Speaker Mike Johnson’s office, followed by a massive scrum of reporters asking whether the government will shutdown.
Now, Republicans say they’ve got a deal. But the question on everyone’s mind on Capitol Hill is: Will it stick?
Democrats are meeting to discuss next steps, and Johnson will likely need their help to get anything passed. I was told by Democratic sources earlier that party leader Hakeem Jeffries has been pushing hard for unity in the face of Republican discord – and it is unlikely they will want to help Republicans fix their mess after Trump’s party scuttled their most recent deal.
Image source, Getty ImagesPresident-elect Trump has weighed in calling it a “Success”, after he and billionaire Elon Musk helped to tank the original bipartisan deal. But Johnson has already lost at least one vote: Congressman Chip Roy said it’s a “Hard no” from him, since he’s against a suspension of the debt limit.
We will see what comes next as Johnson prepares to put his latest proposal on the floor tonight. He has a razor-thin Republican majority in the House of Representatives, and so he has very little slack to work with.
He may lose more votes from the hard-right Freedom Caucus, meaning that Republicans will once again need the help of Democrats to get this latest deal passed.