Washington (AFP) – The US government, already shaken by Donald Trump’s radical reforms, could begin shutting down entirely this weekend as Democrats grapple with the politically risky option of opposing the president’s federal funding plans. With a Friday night deadline to fund the government or allow it to start winding down, the Senate is set for a crunch vote ahead of the midnight cut-off on a Trump-backed bill passed by the House of Representatives. The package would keep the lights on through September, but Democrats are under immense pressure from their own grassroots to defy Trump and reject a text they say is full of harmful spending cuts.
“If there’s a shutdown, even the Democrats admit it will be their fault,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer — who has long insisted that it is bad politics to shut down the government — indicated he would vote for the bill, raising hopes for its success. Others in the minority party — worried that they would be blamed over a stoppage with no obvious exit ramp — also appear ready to incur the wrath of their support base by backing down. But Schumer has not explicitly told his troops which way to jump, telling reporters “each is making his or her own decision” and the vote remains on a knife edge.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who voted against a bill to avert a shutdown as recently as 18 months ago, urged the minority party to “put partisan politics aside and do the right thing.” “When the government shuts down, you have government employees who are no longer paid, you have services that begin to lag. It brings great harm on the economy and the people,” he told Fox News. The funding fight is focused on opposition to Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by tech mega-billionaire Elon Musk, which is working to dramatically downsize the government.
DOGE aims to cut federal spending by $1 trillion this year and claims to have made savings so far of more than $100 billion through lease terminations, contract cancellations, and firing federal workers. Its online “wall of receipts” accounts for less than a fraction of that total, however, and US media outlets have found its website to be riddled with errors, misleading math, and exaggerations. Grassroots Democrats, infuriated by what they see as the SpaceX and Tesla CEO’s lawless rampage through the federal bureaucracy, want their leaders to stand up to DOGE and Trump. The funding bill is likely to need support from at least eight Democrats, but Republicans ignored the opposition’s demands to protect congressional control over the government’s purse strings and rein in Musk.
Washington progressive representative Pramila Jayapal told CNN there would be a “huge backlash” against Senate Democrats supporting the bill. Several top Democrats have warned, however, that a shutdown could play into Musk’s hands, distracting from DOGE’s most unpopular actions, which just this week has included firing half the Education Department’s workforce. “It’s not really a decision, it’s a Hobson’s choice: Either proceed with the bill before us, or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. The Democratic leader claimed that Musk and Trump were hoping for the government to grind to a halt.
“A shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now…with nobody left at the agencies to check them,” he said. Republicans control 53 seats in the 100-member Senate. Legislation in the upper chamber requires a preliminary ballot with a 60-vote threshold — designed to encourage bipartisanship — before final passage, which only needs a simple majority. Schumer and Pennsylvania Senator Fetterman are so far the only Democrats committed to allowing the bill to move forward, as no other Democrats have indicated publicly they would be willing to cross the aisle.
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