The Biden White House is taking no evident part in the Congressional continuing resolution-vs-shutdown debate, although it certainly has insisted on intervening on every other matter of importance to the next presidency. But behind the scenes there is Democratic unanimity. All but two Democrats voted against bringing a vote on a continuing resolution (CR) measure pushed by President Trump, which conveys $100 billion in disaster aid, and $10 billion in aid to farmers, but has no other “specials” added to the continuation of existing budget lines for two months. The Democrats’ stated grounds were that this CR replaced another which Democrats had negotiated with Speaker Mike Johnson; and, that it suspended the debt ceiling for two years.
As significant was the GOP side. Some 38 Republicans voted against the CR Trump was pushing. Several things seem notable: that the previous, discarded CR (the one Johnson had negotiated with Democratic leadership) was first attacked by Elon Musk on “X,” and only 12 hours later by Trump; that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy ("DOGE") jointly took credit in a press release for stopping it, without mentioning Trump; and that late Thursday afternoon Dec. 19, Musk praised Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) on “X” while Trump, on Truth Social, was attacking Roy and suggesting he be defeated for re-election next time. Roy always is a leading “no” vote, from the so-called Freedom Caucus.
A partial government shutdown starting Friday night, Dec. 20, was the likely result. However, Speaker Johnson presented the same CR with the same features—the $100 billion disaster aid and the $10 billion aid to farmers—but no suspension of the debt ceiling, and it passed late Friday evening with votes from both parties. Both the Senate and the White House indicated approval.
