Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news from Bloomberg World Headquarters
Speaker 1: in New York. I'm Doug Prisner with special coverage of
Speaker 1: the US House vote on a stopgap funding bill to
Speaker 1: avert a government shutdown. This bill has just been defeated
Speaker 1: after more than thirty Republicans voted against it. Government funding
Speaker 1: will now lapse Friday night without Congressional action. By the way,
Speaker 1: this bill did include a suspension of the federal debt
Speaker 1: limit for two years, and it did have the support
Speaker 1: of President elect Trump. For a closer look, Now, let's
Speaker 1: bring in Bloomberg's Mike Dorning. He covers Congress for US
Speaker 1: from our bureau in Washington, DC. Mike, was this really
Speaker 1: a surprise the outcome here?
Speaker 2: It wasn't at all a surprise. We've been expecting this
Speaker 2: since this deal was announced. They weren't able to get
Speaker 2: support from Democrats, and they weren't able to get support
Speaker 2: from conservative Republicans.
Speaker 1: It was late yesterday, though, that President Electrump can out
Speaker 1: yet against It. Wasn't that after Elon Musk voiced his opinion.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, you're right. Elon Musk just savaged the bill online
Speaker 2: all day long Wednesday, and then By the end of
Speaker 2: the day, Trump joined with him and came out against
Speaker 2: the bipartisan deal.
Speaker 1: So what was the biggest sticking point here? Was it
Speaker 1: the suspension of the federal dead limit for two years?
Speaker 2: Well, Trump wanted to suspend the debt limit because he
Speaker 2: didn't want to do it with him as president. He
Speaker 2: wanted to do it with Biden as president. And also
Speaker 2: that is often something where you have to give something
Speaker 2: up to Congress to get them to raise the debt limit,
Speaker 2: and he didn't want to do that. So that's why
Speaker 2: one of the reasons why a lot of Democrats didn't
Speaker 2: vote for it, and definitely a reason why the conservative
Speaker 2: Republicans voted against it. They most of them don't like
Speaker 2: raising the debt limit.
Speaker 1: So government funding, as we know well, laps Friday night
Speaker 1: without congressional action. Where do we go from here.
Speaker 2: Well, it's quite possible that they'll come up with some
Speaker 2: temporary patch to keep things going a little longer. That
Speaker 2: might be something that lasts into next year, but it
Speaker 2: might just be something that lasts a little while. It's
Speaker 2: also possible that a shutdown occurs. Right now, Speaker Johnson's
Speaker 2: going to go back into his office and huddle with
Speaker 2: Republicans and try to figure out their next step.
Speaker 1: He was the negotiator of that earlier bipartisan agreement, and
Speaker 1: I was reading today that maybe his leadership is now
Speaker 1: in doubt. Is that a fact?
Speaker 2: Well, this is definitely a failure by the speaker. The
Speaker 2: job of a congressional leader is to kind of figure
Speaker 2: out the parameters of what's acceptable, and he failed to
Speaker 2: have a sense or incorporate a sense of what Trump
Speaker 2: and Musk would tolerate. And as a result, either because
Speaker 2: he didn't think through that that they would go far
Speaker 2: as far as they did, or because maybe they've changed
Speaker 2: their minds along the way. As a result, this spell apart.
Speaker 1: So is President elect Trump still in control? Does he
Speaker 1: have the upper hand on any deal that maybe worked
Speaker 1: out before that Friday night deadline?
Speaker 2: He has the ability, probably in most instances, to scuttle
Speaker 2: a deal. So he essentially already has a veto power
Speaker 2: over congressional Republicans at least now.
Speaker 1: One of the things that Musk was saying in his
Speaker 1: tweet about the earlier agreement was that he saw it
Speaker 1: as being a crime, in that anyone who voted in
Speaker 1: favor of it should be voted out of office in
Speaker 1: two years, do you think that Musk's influence over the
Speaker 1: process will remain as strong as it has been in
Speaker 1: the last twenty four hours.
Speaker 2: He will remain influential over the process if he chooses
Speaker 2: to use that influence, because remember, he was the largest
Speaker 2: political donor in the United States this past year. He
Speaker 2: was also the richest man in the world. So if
Speaker 2: you have Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican Party
Speaker 2: and the richest man in the world, the biggest political
Speaker 2: donor against you in a Republican primary, that's a big
Speaker 2: problem for you. So you have to think twice before
Speaker 2: you defy them.
Speaker 1: Speaking with Bloomberg's Mike Dorning there in response to the
Speaker 1: bill on stopgap funding to avert a government shutdown. It
Speaker 1: has been defeated after more than thirty Republicans voted against it,
Speaker 1: and now government funding will lapse Friday night without congressional action.
Speaker 1: So Mike, back to you. In terms of what the
Speaker 1: day will be like, Friday, will really be incumbent upon
Speaker 1: Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, to get leadership together,
Speaker 1: to try to get people on the same page. First
Speaker 1: thing in the morning.
Speaker 2: He'll probably be already working on this time now. Part
Speaker 2: of it is also maybe he's hoping that this will
Speaker 2: get Trump to believe it's not possible to do a
Speaker 2: dead limit increase this year, but he may not be
Speaker 2: able to persuade Trump at that. It might be that
Speaker 2: Trump would rather have a shutdown than forego a dead
Speaker 2: limit increase before he comes into office.
Speaker 1: And we know where mister Musk is, particularly with this
Speaker 1: new committee sending up to look for more efficiencies in
Speaker 1: the way in which the US government operates? Doge I
Speaker 1: think as how it's being referred to, is there anything
Speaker 1: to suggest that Musk was trying to make a point
Speaker 1: in sabotaging this bill.
Speaker 2: I think one of the things he did want to
Speaker 2: show is that he's serious about cutting back what he
Speaker 2: considers to be wasteful spending and show that the members
Speaker 2: of Congress that he has some power to get them
Speaker 2: to cut back spending. Because remember, his group is just
Speaker 2: like an advisory group, It doesn't really have any power.
Speaker 2: His power is twofold. His power is because he's one
Speaker 2: of Trump's key advisors and he can influence the president.
Speaker 2: And his power is because of his money and his
Speaker 2: social media platform. So he was using both of those
Speaker 2: leavers of power to gain concessions on this.
Speaker 1: So, as we know, government funding will lapse at twelve
Speaker 1: oh one a m. Saturday. Is there a risk that
Speaker 1: we could get a partial government shutdown first thing in
Speaker 1: the morning on Saturday.
Speaker 2: There's definitely a risk, a high risk that will have
Speaker 2: a government shut down first thing in the morning Saturday.
Speaker 2: Now it's also possible that they come up with something
Speaker 2: and you know, if they missed them Friday night at
Speaker 2: midnight deadline, and you know, the government's formally, you know,
Speaker 2: officially shut down for a few hours or for Saturday
Speaker 2: and Sunday, is probably not going to have a big
Speaker 2: effect on the country. The bigger thing that would have
Speaker 2: an effect is a drawn out shutdown in which non
Speaker 2: essential government services would stop and none of the employees
Speaker 2: would be paid.
Speaker 1: Mike will leave it there, Thank you so much, Bloomberg's
Speaker 1: Mike Dorning. He covers Congress for us here on Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Just to recap, the stopgap funding bill to avert a
Speaker 1: government shutdown has been defeated. We'll have more on this
Speaker 1: throughout the night here on Bloomberg Radio.