Republicans propose an unusual stopgap plan to avoid a shutdown

On Saturday, November 11, the Republican Party unveiled an unconventional temporary plan to finance the US federal state, threatening within a few days the possibility of budget paralysis – that is, closure.

This two-part plan is “A necessary text to put House Republicans in the best possible position to defend conservative victories.”Republican Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House of Representatives, announced. “This bill would end the ridiculous holiday tradition of introducing huge, jam-packed spending bills right before the Christmas holidays.”Mr. Johnson wrote on X (formerly Twitter) without giving details.

American media said that under this unusual plan, some bills needed to keep federal services open will be passed through a short-term bill until January 19, 2024, while the rest will be postponed to February 2. This would buy Congress time to pass various spending bills, without allocating funding for Israel, Ukraine and border security.

Some Republicans are already complaining that the plan does not provide the funding cuts they seek. Therefore, it is not certain that the party, which has only a simple majority in the House of Representatives, will be able to adopt it, let alone the Democratic-controlled Senate.

‘A recipe for more Republican chaos’

The White House called this proposal ‘A recipe for more Republican chaos and more lockdowns’. “House Republicans are wasting valuable time with a weak proposal that has been harshly criticized by members of both parties.”Presidential spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre made the announcement in a press release.

The federal state budget ends Friday evening at midnight. Without an agreement by then, the world’s largest economy will suddenly slow down – 1.5 million government employees will be deprived of their salaries and air traffic will be disrupted.

The last negotiations over the US federal budget, at the end of September, had already plunged the institution into chaos. Trump loyalist elected officials, angry that then-Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, reached a last-minute agreement with the Democratic camp, fired him – a completely unprecedented situation.

It then took three weeks for elected officials to agree on a new president, Mike Johnson. For three weeks, the US Congress was unable to pass any law. This representative-elect from Louisiana, unknown to the general public and with very limited experience within the Republican general staff, must contend, like his predecessor, with a handful of Trump supporters, ultra-strict budget orthodoxy, and Democrats, who refuse to dictate economic policy. to the country by aides to the former president.