Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) spoke to C-SPAN about House GOP dysfunction over the spending bill:
MALLIOTAKIS: I don’t know what’s going on and really that’s part of problem… Zero communication from leadership to the membership. Something should change before January 3.
C-SPAN: How frustrated are you with Speaker Johnson?
MALLIOTAKIS: How does it sound?
“Donald Trump’s team has told European officials that the incoming U.S. president will demand NATO member states increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, but plans to continue supplying military aid to Ukraine,” the Financial Times reports.
“During his White House campaign, Trump vowed to cut off aid to Ukraine, force Kyiv into immediate peace talks, and leave NATO allies undefended if they failed to spend enough on defense — spooking European capitals.”
“But in a boost for allies deeply concerned over their ability to support and protect Ukraine without Washington’s backing, Trump now intends to maintain U.S. military supplies to Kyiv after his inauguration.”
Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) told Fox Business that Republicans “need to get onboard with President Trump” and added that “our role is really to be more of a supportive board of directors.”
“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will unveil a new cabinet on Friday, but his own political future is in serious doubt after a key opposition leader said he’ll vote to bring the prime minister’s government down,” Bloomberg reports.
“Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party, said in a statement that his party ‘will put forward a clear motion of non-confidence in the next sitting of the House of Commons.’ If all opposition parties vote against Trudeau’s government, it will have to resign, triggering an election.”
“House Republicans are eyeing a new spending proposal that would tee up votes on three separate measures: to fund the government, appropriate disaster relief and allocate farm assistance,” The Hill reports.
“But in a shift from previous strategy — and in a break from President-elect Trump’s request — the new plan does not include a measure to increase the debt ceiling, the sources said, a move that could spark the ire of the incoming president, who demanded that such language be included.”
Punchbowl News notes the vote may need to wait until tomorrow — after the government shuts down.
Politico: “In extraordinary but little-watched court proceedings since Election Day, judges appointed by presidents of both parties have emphasized the need for accountability for the people who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to derail the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.”
“These judges have sounded dire warnings about the fate of the country if the lessons of the 2020 election go unlearned, and they are bluntly bracing for a turbulent start to the second Trump presidency…”
“The judges’ clarion calls are becoming markedly more frequent and pointed as Trump’s inauguration nears.”
“When the media decides to start hedging, or not telling the full story, combined with people being reluctant to engage in political opposition because they fear they will land in jail, that’s just not a democracy any longer. And it’s not like we’re six months away from that. It feels like we might be a month away from a world in which people start to retreat from politics for fear of criminal prosecution, and the media just uses kid gloves in dealing with the regime. I don’t think this is hypothetical two years from now; we may be living in a very restricted democratic space in January.”
— Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), speaking to Greg Sargent on The Daily Blast.
House Republicans are likely to split the government funding bill in pieces and hold separate votes on different parts of the bill, Punchbowl News reports.
This would allow each piece to pass or fail on its own merit.
The White House Office of Management and Budget is alerting federal agencies this morning to prepare for an imminent government shutdown, the Washington Post reports.
Cook Political Report: “Republicans’ success at the ballot box in 2024 was decisive but not overwhelming. The GOP owes its continued control of the House to a mere 7,309 votes spread across three districts. At the presidential level, Donald Trump owes his Electoral College victory to 229,766 voters out of 155.2 million cast. And in the Senate, while Republicans easily picked off Democratic-held seats in the red states of West Virginia, Montana and Ohio, they managed to capture just one purple state — Pennsylvania — and by just 15,115 votes.”
“The results of this election, like those of 2016 and 2020, proved that neither party can claim a mandate or even a lasting and pervasive political majority. Instead, our politics is fought on the margins, with just a few thousand votes making the difference between who controls Congress and the White House. For the last 18 years, voters’ support for the status quo has been waning. Since 2006, every election but one (2012), has seen a change in party control of the House, Senate, or White House.”
Jonathan Chait: “The period of left-wing illiberalism that began about a decade ago seems to have drawn to a close. The final cause of death was the reelection of Donald Trump.”
President-elect Donald Trump worked Friday morning to foist the blame for any potential government shutdown onto the current White House, insisting that the funding fight on Capitol Hill “is a Biden problem to solve,” Politico reports.
“This week’s epic fight over funding the government captures the power — and flaws — of the new information ecosystem,” Axios reports.
“Elon Musk and his followers on X proved they dominate the Republican media industrial complex — using a digital revolt to kill a spending bill, and open the door to a government shutdown. That revolt was powered by some false information, tweeted with total self-certainty.”
Said Donald Trump Jr.: “We aren’t just the media here now. We are also the government.”
Although Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) claims he’s got a “Plan C” to avert a government shutdown, Punchbowl News notes he has not filed a new bill yet today.
That means if Johnson plans to go to the House floor this morning, he has to file that soon — or perhaps he’ll go with another bill that’s already been filed.
But here’s the wrinkle: Whatever bill he puts up would be required to pass under suspension of the rules requiring a two-thirds majority since there’s not time to go to the Rules Committee.
Senate Republicans were left fuming Thursday over what they called the dysfunctional “shit show” and “fiasco” they witnessed in the House as two proposals to fund the government through Christmas failed this week, The Hill reports.
Said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX): “I get weary with the drama associated with this. This is so dysfunctional and so distracting from the things we should be doing.”
“U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, set to join President-elect Donald Trump’s administration as an outside adviser, waded into Germany’s election campaign on Friday, calling the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) the country’s savior,” Reuters reports.
“The AfD is running second in opinion polls and might be able to thwart either a center-right or center-left majority, but Germany’s mainstream, more centrist parties have vowed to shun support from the AfD at national level.”
“Elon Musk has never been elected to office. President-elect Donald Trump has not tapped him to serve in any role inside the government. Until the July assassination attempt, he never even publicly supported Trump,” the Washington Post reports.
“But this week, critics of the world’s richest man say he attained a new title: ‘shadow president’ of the United States.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.