Trump and Vance bemoan Dem 'giveaways' in funding bill — and beg GOP to call their 'bluff'
President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming vice president bemoaned "democrat giveaways" on Wednesday in trying to explain why they helped torpedo a stopgap funding bill that would avert a government shutdown just before the holidays.
The current continuing resolution funding the federal government expires at midnight Friday. If Congress fails to pass either another resolution or a budget by that time, the government will shut down, resulting in millions of federal workers temporarily going without paychecks and disrupting essential government services. Vital programs related to affordable housing and homelessness assistance could see delayed funding.
But Trump and key ally Elon Musk came out against House Speaker Mike Johnson's funding bill on Wednesday, throwing the entire process into chaos two days before the deadline.
In explaining his reasoning, Trump criticized Republicans in a statement with Vice-president-elect J.D. Vance (R-OH).
"The most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025. It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed," they said.
ALSO READ: New Trump foreign affairs pick has history of forging ties with right-wing authoritarians
The statement later added: "Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. "
They rebuked the bill for giving what they called "sweetheart provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney" — whom Trump targeted during his campaign as someone who ought to face retribution over her participation in investigating the Jan. 6 riot.
"The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the corrupt January 6 committee—which accomplished nothing for the American people and hid security failures that happened that day," said Trump and Vance.
They also took issue with the fact that congressional lawmakers gave themselves a raise "while many Americans are struggling this Christmas."
Trump and Vance called on Republicans to "get smart and tough," and pass a "streamlined" spending bill that "doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want."
"Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country," said Trump and Vance.
The GOP, they said, needs to call Democrats' "bluff" if they threaten to shut down the government.
Among the inclusions are about $100 billion in hurricane relief and $10 billion in assistance for farmers. It also includes provisions to hand over control of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium to Washington, D.C. and enable the city to negotiate to return the Washington Commanders back to the nation's capital.