The U.S. government risks partial closure at midnight

Lawmakers are narrowing the time to approve the budget for the government, while Friday's midnight expires deadlines for its financing, jeopardising the closure of federal agencies.

This is a long process. Sometimes it takes some time to reach consensus”, House of Representatives Chairman Mike Johnson said.

The bill, envisioning the removal of the debt ceiling by 2027, failed Thursday evening. It was negotiated within hours, after President-elect Donald Trump through a post on his social media page “Truth Social”, said the Republicans should agree to raise the debt ceiling before adopting the budget bill.

Kevin Kosar, expert at the American Enterprise Institute Institute, who investigates public policies, said it was an unlikely requirement to agree.

“to some extent was to his advantage. If Congress addressed this issue now, then he would not have to negotiate it later or bear the burden of populist reaction to the increase of the debt limit. On the other hand, it was a late request. Congress is trying to close before the Christmas holiday, and reaching agreement on increasing the debt limit is extremely difficult”, he said.

Trump backed the new legal package negotiated by the Republicans on Thursday afternoon, but republican hardline lawmakers rejected it. According to them, Republicans were supporting expenditures the country could not afford, no matter the consequences.

Well, three hundred and thirty billion dollars. Congratulations on increasing your debt since you won the majority again. This is embarrassing”, Republican lawmaker Chip Roy said.

The Democrats also rejected the new bill.

“The extremist MGA republics decided to do what the rich, millionaires and billionaires were ordered with strong connections, rather than working class people throughout America”, said the leader of the democrat minority in the Hakeem Jeffries House.

The original bill on which both sides had agreed included $100 billion in aid to cases of natural disasters and billions of dollars to farmers. He also envisioned government financing by mid-March.

But Elon Musk, the world's richest man and Trump's ally, opposed him. In a post in the social media X he wrote “stop stealing your tax”.

Analyst Tom Schatz told the Voice of America that this represents a new way of governing.

The difference between trying to eliminate wasteful spending in the past and today is social media. The taxpayers have a greater opportunity to make their views known to members of Congress, and this can be done more quickly. If the adoption of laws to consolidate departments or programmes can already be faster and more inclusive because of social media”, he said.

If lawmakers fail to reach an agreement by midnight today, millions of federal employees will be forced to stop. / VOA