House Democrats met behind closed doors Thursday morning following President-elect Donald Trump’s death blow to a deal to keep the government open, and are blaming Republicans for an increasingly likely government shutdown.
Lawmakers exiting the meeting were frustrated with Republicans over the collapse of the stopgap funding bill and channeled their anger at tech billionaire Elon Musk and Mr. Trump for nuking the package.
Congress has until midnight Friday to hammer out a new deal to keep the government open, and Democrats are holding the line behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who said Republicans would “own” a shutdown.
Rep. Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat, said House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, needs to “grow a spine” and called Mr. Musk, who was tapped by Mr. Trump to co-lead the advisory panel Department of Government Efficiency, the “president.”
“We’re all disappointed that the speaker of the House went back on a deal that he helped negotiate and that he is willing to shut the government down because of the words of an eccentric, weird gazillionaire who basically instructed him to do that,” Mr. McGovern said. “I think it’s a terrible thing.”
Many lawmakers feared that there would be a shutdown and squarely blamed interference by Mr. Musk, who they said is not an elected official and does not understand how Congress works.
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“You thought you voted for Trump,” said Rep. Becca Balint, Vermont Democrat. “You didn’t. Actually … you voted for billionaires who run the show, because who’s taking orders from whom? Musk is calling the shots, and the House GOP is falling in line.”
Mr. Musk spent much of Wednesday lambasting the deal and calling for Republicans to vote against it, while Mr. Trump swooped in at the last minute to effectively kill the legislation and instead propose something new to the mix: increase, or outright terminate, the debt ceiling.
Congress dealt with the debt limit last year when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, negotiated a deal with President Biden to suspend it through Jan. 1, 2025, and implemented discretionary spending caps for fiscal 2024 and 2025.
Though the suspension is set to expire soon, the Treasury Department can use extraordinary measures to continue paying off U.S. debt obligations for several more months. Experts project those extraordinary measures would be exhausted sometime in June, meaning Congress must suspend or raise the debt limit before then to avoid a government default.
But the new debt ceiling wrinkle from Mr. Trump threatens to cause cracks in Democrats’ united front, largely because they have called for the elimination of the debt limit for several years. Some took to social media to express their support, while others said the issue should wait until after the current shutdown threat is averted.
“We need to pass this bill, and we can get to that later,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Ohio Democrat. “Both parties have been working together. I think some of the people around the president-elect need to understand the legislative process and not stall it.”
Meanwhile, members of Mr. Johnson’s leadership team huddled with the speaker in his office, negotiating a plan to move forward with a spending deal.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, told reporters as he walked into Mr. Johnson’s office that “there’s a lot of moving parts,” but lawmakers are trying to craft a new deal that met “immediate needs.”
“I think if you see a deal come together in the house it passes, it’s going to likely pass in the Senate too,” Mr. Scalise said. “We’ve got to start here, get the work done in the House, that’s what we’re focused on.”
• Lindsey McPherson contributed to this story.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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