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You're in Washington. People are on watch to see if the government is going to shut down after midnight tomorrow. Yes, the deadline is less than thirty six hours away, and at this point it's not clear how a shutdown will
be averted. After the one five hundred and forty seven page stopgap continuing resolution put forward by House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday met with a wall of opposition from the likes of Elon Musk, from President elet Donald Trump himself, and from a number of other conservatives in Congress, including Republican Senator Josh Holly of Missouri.
Here's the thing that really gets me. Republicans negotiated this The Speaker of the House negotiated this bill. It is a total travesty. This has got to change, Sean. I mean, we cannot go on like this, and I hope that Republican leadership gets the message here, the message of this election, which is that people want change, they don't want this garbage. I'm a hard no on this thing. It is a joke, it is a travesty, and they need to go back to square one.
And things did change pretty quickly in that Plan A has now been declared dead. Becomes a question of what exactly Plan B is going to be and how Plan B can pass in a House that is divided along very slim lines. The Republican majority is very narrow, and Democrats have suggested that unless it's the original deal, they may not be along for the ride. We heard from the Democratic leader in the House, Hackeing Jeffreys on that earlier this morning.
House Democrats, House Republican, Senate Democrats, and Senate Republicans reach the bipartisan agreement to fund the government, prevent a shutdown, and meet the needs of the American people. That bipartisan agreement has now been detonated because House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government and hurt the very working class Americans that many of them pretend to want to help.
So let's get the latest from Capitol Hill now where Jack Fitzpatrick Bloomberg government Congress supporter is joining us from so Jack, where do we stand at this hour? With not a lot of time left to go to avert this thing?
Right now, no one knows where we stand. We could be pulled in two totally opposite directions, as we've seen in the last twenty four hours. There was a bipartisan agreement. Then Elon Musk came in with some conservative House members and people like Josh Holly saying we should take out some of this additional spending. This is too big, too bloated.
Then the President elect Donald Trump pulled us in the opposite direction and said his top priority was adding something that's a hard vote for many Republicans, which is a debt limit measure. In fact, he's followed up multiple times and says, I don't just want to suspend or raise
the debt limit, I want to eliminate it. So do we strip this down to a bare bones bill to try to just simply avoid a shutdown and maybe the disasterate is not in there, or do we add to it and say this is a total reimagining of the existing debt limit law. Speaking to lawmakers so far today, no one knows other than that, Democrats, despite having advocated for an end to debt limit standoffs, are not interested in working with Trump to end them permanently in the
future if it's in conjunction with this stopgap. They are focused on just trying to avoid a shutdown, and any debt limit talk should come later, they say. So it's not clear where they go, and the likelihood of a funding lapse seems pretty high right now.
Well, so then it becomes a question on how long exactly that could last, Jack, and what is going to be able to get through Ultimately, If what we're looking for here is some kind of slim down package that certainly is not north of fifteen hundred pages, would it still include theoretically disaster relief for example, that many in the Southeast desperately need.
That is an important issue to some key members. So it's hard to imagine this thing moving without disaster aid. Theoretically they could vote separately, but just late yesterday the Senators from North Carolina Tom Tillis and Ted Budd were saying they're not going to vote for a stopgap if it does not include packaged within it, the disaster Aid. When you have a hurricane pla through your state or the other areas that have had wildfires, flooding, tornadoes, et cetera.
You don't just want to vote on disaster Aid. You want to attach it to the must pass bill to keep the government running, because that's your point of leverage, and that has been raised by key members so far. So a major part of any whipcount is going to be if you take out disaster Aid, you're going to lose members, probably from a wide variety of places around the country that stand to benefit from this, because it's
not just Hurricane Helene and Milton. It's years of a backlog of FEMA funds that people are waiting on, whether it's the Maui wildfires that still has money. It's a lot of lawmakers who would be upset if that is pulled out of this stopgap.
Well, we know Jack that a lot of lawmakers are upset already. Specifically a lot of Republican lawmakers are quite upset with Speaker Johnson for putting forward this initial mammoth cr in the first place, knowing that just weeks from now he has to stand for re election to get the Speaker's gavel again. How precarious does his position actually, look, is he going to be able to hang on to the job.
This is so much more difficult for Mike Johnson than I think anyone really imagined. The initial reason we were talking about a stopgap measure to fund the government through March fourteenth is at least one reason is it would be very difficult for the Speaker to negotiate a full government funding package that requires a lot of compromises right before running for speaker. That's the kind of thing conservatives
don't like. But when you load this up as a fifteen hundred page bill with one hundred billion dollars in disaster AIATE and a wide variety of things Democrats tried to get in there and succeeded, it's just about as complicated. So he has entered into tough negotiations that are only getting more complex, especially with a potential debt limit vote being demanded by the President elect. He may look back and wish that he had just taken care of everything
rather than kicking this to March. But it's very, very difficult and unex expectedly so at this point.
All right.
Jack Fitzpatrick, Bloomberg Government Congress supporter, with the latest from Capitol Hill, where it is certainly a chaotic day. Thank you so much. Will of course be checking back in with our team on the Hill throughout the day as we try to get a sense of what exactly is happening here and what exactly it all means politically. So
for that, let's turn to our political panel. Kristin Han is joining me, Democratic strategist and partner at Rock Solutions, alongside Bloomberg Politics contributor Rick Davis, Republican strategist and Stone
Court Capital partner. Kristin. There has been a contention from President elect Donald Trump in the last twenty four hours as he tanked Plan A and is now pushing for this debt sealing issue to be dealt with before he takes office, that whatever happens now is going to be shouldered by the incumbent president, which is a Democrat, Joe Biden. And I wonder the extent to which you are hearing concern from Democrats about that being true.
May I think there's a serious concern particularly among a number of uh we call them the front line, or the Democrats in those districts that that have the toughest races.
I mean, it's clear what the president wants. The president wants the a democratic president technically to shoulder the responsibil or for the responsibility for you know, either lifting the dut limit, which he will you know, have to deal with next year, but or getting rid of it all together, because he knows that during tax negotiations when that issue comes to a head next year, that that that money
tax cuts. Whether you believe in trickled on economics or not, we can have that discussion later that that money that that adds to the ledger, and it adds to the debt. And so in order to be successful, and you know in the tax negotiations on the Republican side, that will have to happen. So he certainly wants a democratic president and Democratic members of the House to shoulder all of
that responsibility before he even comes into office. And there are serious political considerations I think for Democrats to be made.
Well, is there a political consideration for Donald Trump here, Rick, if he's actually now openly advocating for a abolishment of the debt ceiling, which is something that of course is intended to keep at least some level of fiscal responsibility in the US government. When this is supposed to be the fiscally conservative party. Is that not somehow problematic if not for Trump himself or everybody else who has to represent themselves as a Republican in Congress.
Hayleie, I think it's safe to say that there are no more deficit hawks left in Congress, Republican or Democrat alike. We've had a wild spending spree for two decades that has tripled the requirement to raise the debt limit compared to where it was in two thousand and so Congress has just gotten used to having a blank check. And look,
I mean it's a very simple equation here. If you know Speaker Johnson wants to keep this, he just puts a clean cr and a zeroing out of the debt limit process on a bill and throw it on the floor of the Congress and see who votes for it. And then guess what. He's going to find out that he's not got enough votes to pass that, And then the ball goes back to Elon Musk and Donald Trump and Ramaswami saying, Okay, I did exactly what you said, and we don't have the votes for that. The problem
is this just killing time. Everybody knows that's the outcome. But maybe he just has to be able to do that to get the onus off of his back and shut up all the guys in the cheap seats right now so that he can actually get some work done in Congress.
But what a moment we are in, Rick, for what you just said to actually be the people that need to be pleased here, that anything is going to have to get kicked back, not just to the president elect, Donald Trump, who's of course the leader of the party, but for two people who have not been democratically elected to be representatives in the US government, Elon Musk and
Pavake Ramas. Is it ultimately Elon Musk here who was most in charge, because it does seem like he got a little bit ahead of President Trump yesterday until Donald Trump then came to sing along.
Yeah, no question.
I mean he's been beating his chest since election day, taking credit for the win by spending you know, hundreds of millions of dollars on get out the vote and
and and claiming victory alongside Donald Trump. He was plastered next to Donald Trump for the ensuing month since the election, you know, acquiring a very important role in the new administration is the head of the DOGE and and having meetings in Congress, you know, detailing out the kinds of initiatives that they are talking about promoting, and and and and this is a prime example that you've got a guy who's never been sworn in for any public office whatsoever.
He has no constitutional responsibility to protect and defend the United States, and yet you know, is basically acting as a you know, deputy president of.
The United States.
And look, he's a brilliant guy and probably has a lot to offer to our country. But the idea that he's able to create this kind of situation in Congress, and the guy who's getting to blame for it is Johnson, who was just doing his day job. Yeah, it was a bad bill, but you know, bad bills get agreed to all the time in Congress. I mean, it's what Congress does. I don't even remember the last time I heard someone pass the bill that said, wow, this was fantastic.
And we don't have to think too far back to remember when Donald Trump put the cabash on a bipartisan you know, significant reform to the immigration program. So, you know, these guys who have no public standing yet haven't been sworn into office for anything. You know, have really been wrecking havoc in the House of Representatives.
Well, and they have been charged with making recommendations not just to the House but to the Senate as well in the next two years Kristin about how to make the government more efficient and how to trim down spending. They say they could do true trillion dollars in spending cuts, and there has been some degree of optimism about the idea that perhaps that could be a step toward greater
fiscal responsibility and government efficiency. But has this whole episode revealed anything to you about the degree to which anything bipartisan is actually going to be able to happen With the recommendations of Elon Musk, what kind of broker is he really proving to be.
I don't think he's off to a good start. I mean he said, you know, I think he tweeted out something like no bills should be passed before January twentieth. He needs to take a civics course. He does not know how Washington works. So, you know, I think anytime anybody puts forth ideas they should be looked at. But you know, the messenger here, he's just not doing himself any favors, and let's be clear. You know, if we really want to get to the issue of debt and deficit,
I'm kind of sick of hearing about waste fraud abuse. Yes, we should always address waste fraud abuse that you have to talk about tax reform and entitlement reform. Those things are very can be politically toxic and until the members and you know, the Doge, if they're being serious about really bringing down our debt and debicit, they should they should include those types of elements, as unpopular as they may be with regard to Social Security, Medicare and other things.
Well, I'm glad you raised tax reform, Kristen, because we know Donald Trump wants to get that done.
Rick.
It's very high on his to do list for early in his term, and that's going to require a budget reconciliation process. Given how badly this has gone this week, what does that spell for these other legislative efforts that arguably are going to be even harder with a slimmer House majority next year.
Yes, it will be harder because the votes just aren't there. And this idea that you can do it with some level of purity in other words, you don't have to cut deals with Democrats to get things done, just betrays the lack of experience that some of the folks who have been in echo Chamber lately have got. Everything that happened last year, really the subsequent two years happened with bipartisan support and a lot of good things happen. It was a pretty productive Senate, less so in the House.
And you know, obviously leadership challenges there delayed things. But at the end of the day, this idea that it's our way or the highway. The highway is paved with
good intentions, but it doesn't necessarily get you anywhere. And so the reality here is this group of leaders coming in to run this administration is going to be faced with the Congress where deals are going to have to be cut and we don't see that level of understanding at this point in time, and that can only get worse if they're ignored.
All right, Rick Davis and Kristen Hahn our political panel today here on Balance of Power. Thank you so much both of you for joining me and will continue to keep you updated on the latest from Capitol Hill as we try to figure out what Plan B is here and We're going to have an important conversation still ahead
with one member of Democratic leadership. Congressoman Susan Delbenet of Washington, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, will be here with me in our Washington d C studio.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens just Live weekdays at noon Eastern on Applecarplay and then roud Oro with the Bloomberg Business app. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station, Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven.
Thirty and the clock is ticking loudly and quickly as we get closer and closer to a midnight tomorrow deadline. To keep the government funded, there was a Plan eight that was introduced earlier this week by the House Speaker Mike Johnson. It was a oney five and forty seven page stopgap measure, a continuing resolution that would have kept
the government funded until March fourteenth. Included a number of other measures as well, including one hundred billion dollars in disaster relief and billions of dollars in aid economic aid for a firm. But that plan quickly met its death in the face of opposition from conservatives, from Elon Musk,
and ultimately from President elect Donald Trump himself. So we're spending our day today wondering what Plan B is going to be, when we're going to get it, and what exactly Plan B is going to look like, especially considering that whatever it is, there is no guarantee that House Democrats or Senate Democrats for that matter, will be eager to go along with it after the initial bipartisan agreement
was tossed out. And I want to join bring in now here in our Washington d C studio a senior member of Democratic leadership, Congressman and Susan DelBene of Washington, who is chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is here with me on Bloomberg TV and Radio. Congressman, thank you so much for your time, really in what has been a very busy twenty four to forty eight hour
period here in Washington. What have you heard, if anything, from Republican leadership at this point about what the path forward is going to be?
Well, I think I'm not sure they know what the past forward is going to be. They we negotiated a deal between the House and the Senate, between Republicans and Democrats, and that deal they blew up at the last minute, and I don't think they have a path forward. So they are talking to each other, but we obviously have an important deadline government funded rents out tomorrow, and we're
all waiting. We're waiting because there's a lot at stake in terms of making sure that families, our communities aren't seeing the ongoing chaos and dysfunction that they've seen from Republicans over and over that is not impacting them. And we've all been negotiating for weeks. But here we are.
Well and Leader Jeffries Hawking Jeffrey said yesterday, you break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow. Should we read that to me? Whatever this plan v ultimately is, there are no Democrats who are going to be willing to cast a vote to get that over the finish line.
Well, they're not negotiating with Democrats right now, so we aren't really sure or what's on the table, So it's really hard right now. It is on them to figure out a bath for it if they want to work and actually come up with the deal. And to your point earlier, it has to go through the House, through the Senate, and be signed by President Biden. This isn't a House only decision, and Republicans can't agree with Republicans, so they haven't even been able to pass legislation on
their own in the House. They have a small margin, they have a lot of disagreement, and so in order for something to get past, they need to work with Democrats. And that was the original plan. So I'm not sure if they have a plan or know what their plan is. They seem to just wait for Donald Trump or now Elon Musk to tell them what to do.
Well, what Donald Trump is now saying is that either the debt ceiling needs to be lifted or completely outright abolished before he takes office. Can you see a world in which that actually happens. Would you be willing to cast a vote to get rid of the debt ceiling?
Well, let's be clear, this wasn't even something that was on the table vote it is, and they just put it on the Well, is it? I don't think this is the question. We don't really know what's on the table. We don't know what Republicans are going to propose as their to your point, plan B and so until they figure out what they're going to do, it's really hard to respond to that. I don't know what the plan is.
I know that we have come to the table, worked on a deal that was important to make sure the government's funded, and now it's up in the air because Republicans don't know what they want to do. And it's kind of poignant because that's how this Congress started, whether Republicans unevile to elect a speaker, and now here we are at the end of this Congress, still in chaos, dysfunction, and extremism.
I do have a question around the speaker, But first on this debt ceiling question. If the debt ceiling were to somehow be raised, if that is what they decide to pursue, and it somehow gets through, what implication would that have if it's not just raised but outright abolished for the tax battle we all know is coming next year.
Well, first of all, I don't know what they're proposing. I don't think any of us know what they're proposing. I don't think we know what it might be on the table. And it comes to important things like disaster assistants, like making sure we have support for our families and our farmers and our communities. So right now everything's kind
of speculation. But I know, all I know is we have a path forward, We have a bipartisan deal that folks spend a lot of time working on, and now we're back in chaos.
I know it's hard to look to the future, but in some sense, a lot of your job is to look toward the future, toward the next election, the midterms in twenty twenty six, because a share of the d Triple CEU are charged with getting more Democrats elected to Congress. And I do wonder how you see everything that is playing out right now is ultimately affecting that Donald Trump is suggesting that if all of this happens while Biden is still in office, it reflects badly on Democrats, not
on Republicans. If Elon Musk is playing this kind of outsize role, already threatening to put money to work in primaries over this, how do you see this changing the next cycle?
Well, Elon Musk actually has suggested the government just shut down, and which would be devastating for our communities. We've been through Republican shutdowns before. Those are devastating for families, for farmers, for our small businesses. And yet that's his suggestion. This is the person who's going to be in charge of government efficiency, and this is one of the least efficient, most expensive things we could do, is shut the government down.
Republicans made a lot of promises to voters, and we have folks who came to our coming to Washington, d C.
To govern.
The question is are Republicans capable of governing? Today is not a very good example of their ability to govern, But voters are going to hold them accountable for what happens for what happens on their pocketbook issues, what happens to prices at the store, what happens to housing, what happens to jobs. These are important issues, important priorities for us to fight for. But unclear what Republicans are going
to do or if they're capable of governing. But I do know that their dysfunction is something we're going to hold them accountable for. And the first chance voters will have a chance to voice their opinion on what Donald Trump and Republicans have done in this upcoming Congress will be in twenty twenty six.
Well, and when we consider the accountability thing, it's for people who have to earn the vote of the American people to hold their office. Right, that's not the case for Donald Trump. He was not democratically elected to be
a representative. And I just wonder if you think the electorate ultimately we're Therefore, if they can't hold him accountable, decide to hold other Republicans accountable in his set if they don't actually like the work or the influence he is having on the government as the world's richess person.
Well, the midterms will be about the House and some of the Senate, so it will be about Congress, and that's when people be able to voice their concerns. People want to see governance work. They want folks to focus on pocketbook issues like lowering costs, like making sure we have affordable housing across the country, that people have good
paying jobs. These are critical issues and if Republicans can't do anything, if they aren't and frankly, a lot of congressional Republicans don't even know how to govern unless they are told what to do by Donald Trump or maybe now Elon Musk is the voice. It's unclear who's even in charge on the Republican side. Speaking of folks who weren't elected this is the environment we're heading into. But really what matters most is are we able to make
sure that we're making progress for the American people. If, despite all their promises, if they're unable to do that, I think they're going to pay. We have great folks in office, and we have folks across the country want to see responsible leadership, and that's why we picked up seats this last election. And another reason why I think folks have supported Democrats is because we are focused on making sure we actually come to Congress to get things done.
I was hearing a lot yesterday Congress women about actually some concerned Democrats had when the text of this original cr was really least about the fact that it did, through a cost of living adjustment, lead to a pay raise for members of Congress. Is it actually in some way a blessing for the D triple C that no one has to be on the record voting for that, especially the frontline members who are perhaps most vulnerable in twenty twenty six.
Well, our frontline members are incumbents who are in those swing districts, and the reason that they are successful in swing districts is because they are authentic, independent minded representatives. Who are focused on their communities and whatever deal came forward, they're going to vote in a way that they think is most important for their district. That's why they were
elected and that's why they continue to be elected. So that's always where I think our frontliners need to go is do what they think is right for their district. That's really their responsibility is to make sure they're standing up for their communities.
And as you point out, these are people who are incumbents, so they already know what it is like to serve in this role. But there are going to be some newly elected freshmen. So we're getting ready to be sworn in just a few weeks from now and are probably watching all of this happen with pretty wide eyes. What is your messaging to those incoming to join the Democratic Caucus about how they can try to make progress in any kind of bipartisan way with what's going on going on.
Well, first of all, in the swing districts, the new incoming freshmen who won in tough purple districts, they won because they really were talking about the kitchen table issues that were important to the communities they're going to be serving and representing. And again not any different than our incumbents. They need to be standing up for their communities and putting them first. And that's always my advice to them.
Listen to your constituents, make sure that you are using them as your guide, and do us right for your communities. And that's what folks want in a representative, and that's what will help them even in a tough district. Well.
And of course, one of the first votes that they'll get to take after being sworn into office is going to be to decide who the next Speaker of the House is, or if it will be the same Speaker of the House is. I'm sure you're well aware, Congressman. We have seen a lot of rumbling because of the events of this week about the future of Mike Johnson and whether he's going to be able to get adequate support from the Republican Conference, especially considering how narrow the
majority ultimately will be. Is there any scenario in which to avoid what happened with Kevin McCarthy fifteen rounds to get a Speaker of the House, Democrats will be willing to put up a vote for Johnson or anyone else just to have order in the chamber.
Well we were unified. We voted for Hakking Jeffreys across the board last time, over and over and over again. The dysfunction is Republican dysfunction. And as we head in to go then, and as we head into the next Congress, the margins even tighter. We picked up seats, so Republicans are going to have to make a decision of whether they can coalesce around someone. It's unclear they disagree with each other all the time. We're seeing that happen right now.
I guess I won't be surprised if we see some of that at the beginning of the next Congress.
Is Mike Johnson as honest a broker, as Democrats who could be hoping to work with in the one hundred and nineteenth Congress, Though for all of the conversation around Mcarthy not having been authentic or not negotiating in good faith, many have viewed Johnson differently. And I do wonder what your take is if they were to try and put, say, someone even more hardline a conservative in his place, if he can't get the votes.
Well, it's unclear that there's anyone who really is the leader of the Republican caucus. Here, we sat down for weeks working on a bipartisan deal, and Republicans couldn't stand by that deal. So it's unclear who you even are supposed to negotiate with who actually is in charge. That might be true no matter who ends up as speaker on the Republican side, because they don't agree with each other, and maybe the only person that they're willing to listen to is an Elon Musk or a Donald Trump.
We just have a minute left here, Congressman. But when a government shut down now, make it more likely that the speaker we're talking about in twenty twenty seven is Speaker Hockeing Jefferies.
Well, I think a government shutdown is painful for our communities. We've seen it over and over and over again, and yet Republicans still put us in a place where we have a looming government shut down here just a little over day away. So that would be devastating for communities, devastating for so many people, federal workers, you know, TSA, agents, border security, all sorts of folks who are working across
the country. It's irresponsible, and so yes, we will hold them accountable for being irresponsible, and right away as well. As in twenty twenty six.
All right, Congressman and Susan del Benet of Washington, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, here with us in our Washington, d C. Studio. Thank you so much for joining me.
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