“President-elect Donald Trump, who derailed a bipartisan spending deal in Congress, tried on Friday to escape responsibility for the consequences, saying it would be better to let the government shut down under President Biden’s watch than to allow a politically damaging stalemate once he takes office next month,” the New York Times reports.

In a complete reversal, Elon Musk, who barraged the initial spending deal with a torrent of criticism on X, just posted on the platform that Johnson “did a good job here, given the circumstances,” the New York Times reports.

After days of uncertainty and Republican infighting, the House easily passed a spending bill to keep the government funded through March.

Democrats feel they defeated both President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk with this bill.

There is no extension of the debt limit, though Republicans have agreed to address that in the new Congress.

“Speaker Mike Johnson will try yet again to pass a short-term funding bill this afternoon, just hours before a government shutdown is set to begin. But this time it seems likely to work,” Punchbowl News reports.

“Johnson is now pushing a short-term funding bill that keeps federal agencies open until mid-March. The bill will include $100 billion in disaster aid for the hurricane-battered Southeast and other states. There’s also $30 billion in aid for farmers and a one-year extension of current agriculture policy.”

“The measure will be taken up under suspension, according to senior GOP lawmakers and aides, meaning it needs a two-thirds majority to pass. There will be one vote, instead of individual votes on the component parts as Johnson first envisioned.”

“If House Democrats back it – which seems likely – and the Senate processes it quickly, the measure could be approved by tonight’s midnight shutdown deadline and sent to President Joe Biden for his signature.”

“I cannot believe the Republicans are extending the debt ceiling — I am a Republican and I am embarrassed!”

— Donald Trump, in January 2013.

“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling. Without this, we should never make a deal. Remember, the pressure is on whoever is President.”

— Trump, earlier today.

House Republicans have changed their plans once again and will now bring to the floor this afternoon the same government funding bill that failed last night — but without raising the debt ceiling, Punchbowl News reports.

It will require a two-thirds majority to pass.

There is also supposedly a side “agreement” — though only among House Republicans — to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion in the “first reconciliation package” alongside a promise to cut $2.5 trillion in “net mandatory spending in the reconciliation process.”

Eric Lutz: “Given the kind of year it’s been, it’s perhaps only fitting that 2024 would end with a chaotic fight over the funding of the government: After twelve months of upheaval and dysfunction, why not a final frenzy of shutdown politics to cap things off?”

“But make no mistake: Whether or not lawmakers strike a deal by their Friday night deadline, Republicans own the chaos that led us to this moment.”