Trump upends U.S. government spending deal days before shutdown deadline

globalnews.ca:

Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan Wednesday to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown, instead telling House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to essentially renegotiate — days before a deadline when federal funding runs out.Trump’s sudden entrance into the debate and new demands sent Congress spiraling as lawmakers are trying to wrap up work and head home for the holidays. It leaves Johnson scrambling to engineer a new plan before Friday’s deadline to keep government open.“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH,” Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a statement.The president-elect made an almost unrealistic proposal that combined the same continuation of government funds along with a much more controversial provision to raise the nation’s debt limit — something his own party routinely rejects.

“Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” they wrote.Democrats decried the GOP revolt over the stopgap measure, which would have also provided some $100 billion in disaster aid to states hammered by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.“And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support. You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”Already, the massive 1,500-page bill was on the verge of collapse, as hard right conservatives rejected the increased spending, egged on by Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk who rejected the plan almost as soon as it was released late Tuesday night.Rank-and-file lawmakers complained about the extra spending — which includes their first pay-raises in more than a decade — a shock after one of the most