Shutdown blame game engulfs Capitol as hopes to avert shutdown fade

The shutdown blame game has already begun on Capitol Hill, a telltale sign that lawmakers don’t expect they can clear a funding plan before the Friday night deadline.

Republicans’ revamped attempt at a stopgap spending bill is headed to the House floor Thursday evening but it’s almost certainly doomed, given it needs to meet a two-thirds threshold to pass the chamber and Democrats have vocally opposed it.

Democrats have already dubbed it the Elon Musk shutdown, given the billionaire publicly excoriated the original bipartisan spending deal and helped tank it on Wednesday. And Republicans are coming out swinging against Democrats after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged his fellow Democrats to vote against the new, hastily assembled package.

"If the government shuts down because Hakeem Jeffries tells his people not to vote for it, the Democrat party in the House of Representatives will be directly responsible for shutting the government down and destroying American agriculture. Period," Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said Thursday afternoon.

Republicans — trying to placate Donald Trump, who had also denounced the previous funding deal for being too kind to Democrats — had worked out the funding deal among their own party and did not involve Democrats. But GOP lawmakers argued that the bill, which still included more than $100 billion in disaster aid, didn’t include provisions that were objectionable to Democrats, and took into account bipartisan negotiations on the previous version.

“It's interesting that Democrats are now saying that they don't want a government shutdown. Yet they're going to vote against it, and a lot of it was already negotiated with Democrats,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.).

Democrats are fuming at Republicans for throwing out a bipartisan agreement that took weeks to negotiate, instead working out a new deal only within their own party and ignoring the reality that Democrats control the Senate and the White House for another month. And many of them are blaming Musk, as well as the so-called Department of Government Efficiency that he will lead next year.

“Elon Musk ordered his puppet President-elect and House Republicans to break the bipartisan agreement reached to keep government open,” wrote former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on social media Thursday evening. “House Republicans are abdicating their responsibility to the American people and siding with billionaires and special interests.”

It’s a long-running tradition in Washington to blame the other party for shutting down the government. But it’s a terrible sign for anyone hoping to actually avoid the shutdown, signaling that lawmakers are at a standoff and aren’t confident they can come to a deal before the deadline on Friday at midnight. Democrats keep calling on Republicans to return to the previous deal, while Republicans are planning another go at their own agreement if and when it fails Thursday evening.

In a divided Congress, one month before a presidential transition and less than a week before Christmas, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

"I think what Republicans are trying to do here is clearly tee this up and make it easier for reconciliation next year, but to put this on at this point without consulting us or talking to us is just pretty unfortunate. We had a deal, it was a bipartisan deal, it's a four corners deal, they should honor the deal," said Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.).

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, is also ready to place blame on the GOP, already labeling anticipated mass furloughs of their members the “DOGE shutdown.” And Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, unleashed on the House floor ahead of the vote on the reworked spending bill.

"House Republicans are responsible for any harm and uncertainty brought upon the American people and should some get their wish for a month-long government shutdown," she said.

Daniella Diaz, Hailey Fuchs and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.