Spending bill tanks, as government shutdown nears

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – It’s a nightmare before Christmas, as House Speaker Mike Johnson’s bill to fund the government is dead in the water.  Immense pushback from House Republicans, as well as President-elect Donald Trump, led to its demise.

Time is running out as Speaker Johnson pulled his bipartisan bill back. Now he’s consulting President-elect Trump’s inner circle to stop a government shutdown.

Johnson is now looking at a Plan B to fund the government after his first attempt at a continuing resolution failed to get enough support from Republicans.

“I was a no before I even came into Washington, D.C., this week,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor (R-Ga.).

Outside the Capitol the nail in the coffin was President-elect Trump shutting the bill down on Truth Social writing, “Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried. Everything should be done, and fully negotiated, prior to my taking Office on January 20th, 2025.”

Johnson’s next option is a clean CR bill which would drop some of the provisions Congressional leaders wanted, including disaster aid and assistance for farmers.

“Don’t add one single thing to it. That’s the cleanest argument,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.).

President-elect Trump also wants an increase to the debt limit but under the Biden administration House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries says his party is against these changes.

“House Republicans have now unilaterally decided to break a bipartisan agreement that they made,” said Jeffries.

President-elect Trump’s ally Elon Musk went as far as to suggest it’s better to shut down the government until President-elect Trump takes office than to pass the bipartisan CR.

It’s not clear if or when Speaker Johnson would bring this clean CR bill to the House floor.  What he does next could affect his race to be speaker on January 3rd.