The U.S. Senate on Tuesday crafted a last-minute, short-term budget proposal but is unlikely to receive approval from the House as the countdown begins to prevent a paralysis of the state’s services at the end of the week.
Just days before the September 30 deadline, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell approved the plan, which would allow the government to continue operating until November 17. However, there is still no sign that the rival Republican factions in the House of Representatives that triggered the showdown will in turn agree to this text if it is passed by the Senate.
If the impasse continues, all funding for federal services will suddenly be cut. The famous “shutdown”.
Ministries, but also national parks, air traffic, certain museums and a large number of organizations would be affected, which would force hundreds of thousands of civil servants into technical unemployment.
“Shutting down the government because of an internal budget dispute does not strengthen anyone’s political position,” McConnell said. “This just freezes important progress. And that leaves millions of Americans in limbo,” he added.
The White House joined Mr. McConnell in imploring Congress to pass the Senate text. “It’s time for House Republicans to get to work,” President Joe Biden said at a campaign rally Tuesday evening.
Help for Ukraine very uncertain
Above all, this budget crisis could have a direct impact on the war in Ukraine. The White House had initially demanded that the finance bill passed by elected officials include $24 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Kyiv.
Aware of the risk of fatigue for the great American ally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went to Congress last Thursday to persuade the United States to help him cross “the finish line” in the face of Russia.
But the release of such an amount seems increasingly uncertain given the direction negotiations are taking behind the scenes: the text circulating in the Senate on Tuesday contained a quarter of that sum, around $6 billion.
However, the House of Representatives, which has been dominated by conservatives since January, does not even want to hear about this bill. “They favor Ukraine at the expense of the Americans,” accused their Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and instead demanded funds for the fight against illegal immigration.
A handful of Trumpist elected officials, with whom the House speaker had to make a series of compromises to gain access to the seat, are calling for an immediate end to aid to Kyiv.
Trumpist troublemakers
These are the same elected officials, adherents of a very strict fiscal orthodoxy, who brought the United States to the brink of political-financial abyss four months ago.
After long negotiations between the Biden government and the conservatives, the leading world power was able to prevent a default at the last minute.
Due to the Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, Donald Trump’s deputies have disproportionate power in the US Congress.
And they received orders from the former president, who is running in 2024, to “paralyze” the state unless they win their case on “all” budget issues under debate.
Under the former Republican leader’s presidency, the United States experienced its longest shutdown in the winter of 2018. According to several estimates, the United States’ GDP was cut by more than $3 billion at the time.