WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the most tumultuous congressional sessions in current times is about to begin another.
The passage of the government shutdown package at midnight highlighted the political fault lines emerging in Washington: President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is fighting for his job and Republicans will take control of the House and Senate in the new year.
It took the votes of both parties, Republicans and Democrats, to keep the government running for a few more months and provide around $100 billion for disaster relief. By working together, the parties showed that the House and Senate can still function at times to accomplish the basics of governing.
“After a chaotic few days in the House of Representatives, it is good news that the bipartisan approach prevailed in the end,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat. “This is a good lesson for next year. Both sides have to work together.”
But next year, Republicans want to go it alone, with Republicans making large promises to cut taxes and cut spending while providing new money to fund Trump’s border security and deportation operations.
“We are ready for a big and important new beginning in January,” Johnson said. “We can’t wait to get started.”
But first, Johnson needs to make sure he has a job.
Johnson’s shaky grip on the gravel
The first vote in the new House of Representatives, when MPs are sworn in on January 3rd, will be to elect a speaker. That leaves Johnson with little time to placid criticism after he suffered major backlash over his management of the battle to shut down the government.
Johnson was never House Republicans’ first choice for speaker, but he stepped forward when they couldn’t agree on a replacement after throwing out the last speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Keeping the hammer is becoming increasingly complex. The government shutdown saga exposed the limits of Johnson’s influence over his majority and Trump’s when his first two funding plans failed. It is unclear whether Johnson will receive enough support from within his ranks.
“That’s always the big question, right?” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., one of the few primarily fiscal conservatives who voted to oust McCarthy. “Ultimately, and let’s be honest, this – a big part of it – will be up to Donald J. Trump.”
And yet Johnson managed to buy time by convincing Trump that he would meet the president-elect’s demands to raise the debt limit in the new year. Johnson has worked strenuous to stay close to Trump — dashing to Mar-a-Lago and joining him ringside at Madison Square Garden — and to the investment shows.
Johnson insisted Trump was “certainly happy” with the final deal.
“The speaker has done a good job here given the circumstances,” wrote Trump ally Elon Musk, who was mentioned as a possible replacement because the speaker is not required to be a member of Congress.
Johnson has no votes left because he actually lost seats in the House of Representatives in the fall election, shrinking his majority. Democrats will counter him with their own speaker candidate, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
“Johnson is clearly not up to the task,” Trump ally and podcast provocateur Steven Bannon said at a conservative conference. “He doesn’t have what we call the real thing — that combination of courage and drive, smarts and toughness.”
Musk turns out to be a power broker on Capitol Hill
The world’s richest man is quickly becoming Capitol Hill’s most feared influencer.
Musk intervened in the debate over government shutdowns, using the enormous power of his social media platform
In post after post, hour after hour, Musk voiced his criticisms and sometimes faulty claims, sent his army of online followers to figuratively flood the Capitol and warned that he would take on the primaries , if lawmakers voted for it. His enormous wealth and his America PAC backed up his threats.
“Kill the bill,” Musk demanded.
Musk had his moment, but also started a new one for himself.
One Democrat after another and at least one Republican turned against Musk, seeing that he was not a benevolent billionaire meddling in the political process, but a symbol of extreme wealth and power in the US run amok .
Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, condemned the removal of health care and other bipartisan provisions from the bill in order to reduce them, as Musk had called for.
“The precedent set in Congress today should anger every American,” Sanders said in a statement announcing his refusal to support the final bill. He voted against it.
“It appears that from now on no major legislation can be passed without the consent of the richest person in this country,” Sanders said. “It’s not a democracy, it’s an oligarchy.”
Trump rules the GOP, but not the deficit hawks
One of the most outspoken conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus is Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who led the charge against Trump’s call for a debt ceiling augment as part of the government shutdown package.
Trump tried to bully Roy and force him into submission. It didn’t work.
“The very unpopular ‘Congressman’ from Texas, Chip Roy, is disruptive as always,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump suggested there should be a primary challenge against Roy. “Republican obstructionists must be eliminated,” he said.
However, Roy has his own popular following as a leading deficit hawk. He stood his ground, ignored Trump’s attack and warned his colleagues not to heed Trump’s calls to raise the debt ceiling and borrow more.
“You go out and campaign, say you’re going to balance the budget, and then you come in here,” he shouted, choking up at times during the floor debate. “It’s embarrassing.”
In the end, 38 Republicans in the House of Representatives, including Roy, sided with Democrats and supported Trump’s debt ceiling augment.
The next battle over the debt limit is just around the corner
The failure of Trump’s preferred spending bill to raise the debt limit suggests trouble ahead.
Republicans will have to raise the debt ceiling in the first half of the year – probably by early summer, according to some estimates – and there will be a weighty price to pay. It is a lever in all political conversations.
As part of the deal Johnson made to pass the short-lived government funding package, he entered into a “gentlemen’s agreement” behind closed doors with his fellow Republicans ahead of Friday’s vote.
House Republicans agreed to cut about $2.5 trillion in federal spending over the next decade as part of the upcoming tax cut bill, a huge sum in the federal budget, in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, which will be necessary is to avoid a federal default.
Burchett, for example, had no interest in such deals.
“I said, ‘This is not a place for gentlemen,'” he said. “Then I screamed: ‘You’re losing me’.”
Trump may have lost the deficit hawks in the vote, but not his own political influence on Capitol Hill.
“He’s still going strong,” Burchett said. “The people back home still love him. And that’s all that really matters.”
___ Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
