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Frustrated speaker Mike Johnson forced to return to drawing board once again after second bill defeated in House of Representatives by 235 votes to 174
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House Speaker Mike Johnson and congressional Republicans are scrambling to find a new deal to avert a US government shutdown before federal funding runs out at midnight on Friday.
The White House Office of Management and Budget has already begun warning government agencies to prepare for the worst.
The Capitol has meanwhile been wracked with confusion this morning, with members offering mixed messages as they left the speaker’s office on the prospect of progress.
The crisis erupted after Johnson’s second congressional spending bill, drafted at the insistence of Donald Trump to include a suspension of the debt limit and remove a number of concessions to Democrats, was comprehensively defeated in the House of Representatives on Thursday night by 235 votes to 174.
The result was a major embarrassment for the incoming president, Elon Musk and the GOP that leaves the government once more hurtling towards an impasse.
The president-elect responded by complaining in a statement: “Nearly every single House Democrat just voted against government funding and to shut down the government.
“These 197 Democrats voted against keeping the government open, disaster relief, and aid for farmers.”
Tech podcaster Kara Swisher told Axios this week that she is attempting to round up a group of wealthy investors to put together a bid to purchase The Washington Post amid its ongoing turmoil under Jeff Bezos’ ownership.
Even though Bezos has not expressed any willingness or interest in selling the paper, Swisher believes that the ultra-rich Amazon founder will look to unload the Post due to the compounding headaches swirling around the outlet – many of which lie at the mega-billionaire’s feet.
Read more:
“The Post can do better,” Kara Swisher told Axios. “It’s so maddening to see what’s happening. … Why not me? Why not any of us?”
If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under “TRUMP.”
This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!
One of the hardest things about being the British ambassador to Washington is giving it up at the end of your term.
You are living in one of the finest private addresses in DC – the only Lutyens built house in North America – with its fabulous art collection, swimming pool, tennis court and hot and cold running servants; with your chauffeur driven Bentley, manicured gardens – and you’re right next door to the vice president’s official residence on Massachusetts Avenue. Trading that for your semi in Balham, or wherever your civil service salary has allowed you to buy, is quite the readjustment.
And our embassy in DC has just been totally refurbished at a cost of tens of millions of pounds. Yes, there can still be a bit of a sewery smell on the lower ground floor, and the fireplace in the drawing room when lit invariably smokes out the whole house so that guests have to retreat to the terrace. But these are small details.
Read more:
Tony Blair may think being in charge of the British embassy in Washington is like running an up market B&B, writes Jon Sopel. But with Trump back in charge, the job has never been more important or more difficult – and Mandelson is a class act
A partial government shutdown is looming over the United States right before the holidays due to disagreements over a spending bill in Congress and lawmakers have until Friday night to figure it out.
If a spending bill finally does pass, federal agencies would be funded until mid-March.
But if it reaches midnight and there is still no deal, some federal services will be temporarily sidelined or federal workers will go unpaid.
Here’s Ariana Baio on how a government shutdown could impact Americans’ holiday plans.
Lawmakers have until midnight Friday to pass a bill or risk shutting down the government before they embark on a 16-day break
Republican Lisa Murkowski has been speaking just now to The Independent’s Eric Garcia on the chaos in Congress and tells him she has four flights home for Christmas booked and has already had to cancel one.
“I’m reading whatever you guys are writing,” she said of the struggle to stay abreast of developments.
On Elon Musk’s influence over the incoming Trump administration, Murkowski said: “I guess that’s the power of an influencer. I mean, you know, you would think that there’s value in your election certificate, that we’re back here to do the work – and we will do the work.
“But this is obviously a level of influence that we saw the impact of yesterday.”
Her Kentucky counterpart Rand Paul tells The Indy that he thinks Chuck Schumer will pass a spending bill to keep the government open and then kick it to the House.
“I think Schumer eventually will pass something here, and that it’ll go over there and it’ll pass over there,” he said.
Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester was more blunt, telling us: “Look, the House has taken orders from the unelected false president Elon Musk.
“That’s the kind of s*** you run into when you start listening to people who aren’t elected.
“They need to get their heads out of the back end of whoever they got it up and get the job done.”
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders adds: “You have Elon Musk, an unelected official telling Republicans what they have to do and threatening to primary them if they don’t obey his wishes, you’re really seeing the power of oligarchy and the power of big money.”
The incoming president and his acolytes are promising retribution for critical journalists, writes Alan Rusbridger.
It is already having a chilling impact – and poses grave threats to the future of the free press.
The incoming president and his acolytes are promising retribution for critical journalists, writes Alan Rusbridger. It is already having a chilling impact – and poses grave threats to the future of the free press
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