After a week of political turmoil, the US government grew increasingly close to a government shutdown by December 24, 2024. A government shutdown occurs when Congress is unable to pass a bill determining budget legislation for the next year. When the bill does not pass, the government goes into shutdown and all non-essential discretionary functions are ceased until new legislation is passed and signed. Although this happens to save money, a shutdown can impact many different sectors such as social security, transportation, and health services. The impact is still felt by the public and the government. On December 18, President-elect Donald Trump rejected a bipartisan plan made by House Speaker Mike Johnson. This bill had been released the day before and reached 1,500 pages long. However, just within 24 hours, Republicans in Congress were pressured by Trump to block the bill. This resurfaced the likely threat of a government shutdown. To prevent a government shutdown, Trump urged Republicans to renegotiate a new one two before federal funding ran out. Along with Trump, Elon Musk spread negativity about the Johnson bill online as House Republicans scrambled to reach a new proposal to meet their demands.
The next day on December 19, the bill was created by the Republicans to keep the government running for three months. However, backed by Trump and Musk, it failed in a 174-235 vote. Despite threats made by Trump to primary any Republican that would be “stupid” enough to overturn the bill, 38 Republicans had voted against it. Both Democrats and Republicans refused to accommodate to the last-second demands, and this proved a massive setback for Trump and Musk. Because the bill did not reach the two-thirds margin, the government would have to go into shutdown if another one was not passed by the next day. A temporary funding bill created on September 30 would expire on December 20, and time was growing scarce.
Thankfully, at the last possible moment, Congress managed to pass a bill in the 11th hour. The bill would keep the government running until March 14, 2024, and the vote was 85-11. Although the Republican-controlled House passed the bill past the midnight deadline, the White House declared that President Biden would still sign the bill on Saturday. In the House, the vote was 366-34, with all opposing votes coming from the Republican members. Johnson said that he spoke to both Trump and Musk that day and that they knew what they were doing. On X later, Musk endorsed the plan and declared that Johnson did a good job despite the frantic circumstances. Trump decided to remain silent on the bill. However, many speculators thought that Trump would approve of this bill since it cut government spending, slashing more than $2 trillion of what Trump called “pork.” This bill was a large difference from Johnson’s bill in government spending, and the good and bad effects will be felt for the next three months.
Although a quick solution was found to prevent a government shutdown, this incident raises questions about Elon Musk’s new power in government and the extent of his influence on government funding and bills.
Written by Claire Liu
