“DO THE RIGHT THING”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who voted against a Bill to avert a shutdown as recently as 18 months ago, urged the minority party to “put partisan politics aside and do the right thing”.
“When the government shuts down, you have government employees who are no longer paid, you have services that begin to lag. It brings great harm to the economy and the people,” he told Fox News.
The funding fight is focused on opposition to Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by tech mega-billionaire Elon Musk, which is working to dramatically downsize the government.
DOGE aims to cut federal spending by US$1 trillion this year and claims to have made savings so far of more than US$100 billion through lease terminations, contract cancellations and firing federal workers.
Its online “wall of receipts” accounts for less than a fraction of that total, however, and US media outlets have found its website to be riddled with errors, misleading math and exaggerations.
Grassroots Democrats, infuriated by what they see as the SpaceX and Tesla CEO’s lawless rampage through the federal bureaucracy, want their leaders to stand up to DOGE and Trump.
The funding Bill is likely to need support from at least eight Democrats, but Republicans ignored the opposition’s demands to protect congressional control over the government’s purse strings and rein in Musk.
