Interim budget: US government shutdown averted

The US Congress has one impending standstill in government business at the last moment averted. After the House of Representatives, the Senate passed one in a night session shortly after the deadline (6 a.m. CET). Transitional budget and thereby prevented a longer “shutdown” of the government. This marks the end of days of trepidation for the President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk triggered by a political blockade maneuver.

US President Joe Biden still has to sign the budget bill to put it into effect – but that is considered a formality and, according to the White House, should happen during the course of Saturday. The vote in the Senate only began shortly after midnight – just after the deadline by which a budget had to be presented had passed. From a purely technical point of view, this started for a short time “Shutdown”-Modus a. However, this does not have an actual effect due to the minimal duration. The White House said ministries and agencies could continue their normal operations and would not be paralyzed.

Forced renegotiations in parliament

Without the budget agreement, this would have happened because the federal government no fresh money available would have had. As a result, state institutions would have had to partially stop their work and many state employees would not have received a salary for the time being – especially around Christmas. Republicans and Democrats in Congress therefore struggled intensively to find a solution.

The last-minute deal followed agitated days in Parliament after Trump, spurred on by his confidante, tech billionaire Musk, unceremoniously torpedoed a previous budget deal. Trump forced renegotiations of the budget draft to a significantly slimmed down version. In the end, he was unable to get through with one core demand. The blockade action by Trump and Musk was still a thing political maneuver of a special kind that caused a great stir.

The Shadow President

Democrats are particularly bothered by the fact that a Billionaire without any political mandate and with own economic interests intervenes significantly in the fortunes of Parliament. Various Democratic members of Congress scoffed that Musk – the richest man in the world – was the one in charge with the Republicans, not Trump. They smugly referred to the Tesla boss as “President Musk”. The 53-year-old supported Trump’s campaign with a lot of money during the election campaign and has hardly left the Republican’s side since his election victory.

Musk celebrated the agreement on a revised interim budget on his Platform X as a victory for public opinion. “Vox populi, vox dei” (People’s voice (is) God’s voice), he wrote there – a Latin saying that the billionaire often uses.

The fight over the debt ceiling

Trump – seconded by Musk – tried, among other things, to include a topic that was not actually planned for in the budget negotiations and one Suspension of the debt ceiling for several years to reach. The limit sets the maximum amount that government debt can rise to finance current expenses such as salaries, social benefits, defense spending and interest on existing debt. If the cap is reached and not increased, the US government will not be allowed to take on any new debt. The debate over the debt ceiling regularly leads to conflict between Republicans and Democrats because it is often used as a pressure tool for other political goals.

Trump will be sworn in as president on January 20th and was probably hoping to give himself some freedom in office by raising the debt ceiling early. He was unable to do this in the current budget negotiations. An interim bill had provided for a regulation according to his wishes, but had encountered resistance from Democrats and some Republicans and therefore did not receive a majority.

The Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson said that he spoke to Musk and Trump shortly before the final draft was voted on in his chamber and discussed the procedure with them. The Democratic minority leader in the House chamber, Hakeem Jeffries in turn argued that his group had ensured that the “Billionaire Boys Club” In the end I didn’t get through with the demand for a suspension of the debt ceiling.