US President Joe Biden on Saturday accused “a small group of extremist Republicans” of threatening to paralyze the federal government next week.
Biden, speaking at a congressional dinner, said he had reached an agreement with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, on the level of public spending for the next fiscal year, which begins on October 1.
But today [sábado]”A small group of extremist Republicans do not want to respect the agreement and all Americans may have to pay the price,” he lamented.
“Financing the Government is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of Congress. It is time for Republicans to start doing the job America elected them to do. Let’s get to it,” he added.
The US Congress, which must vote on funding the federal government before midnight on September 30, is currently divided: the Senate is dominated by Democrats, but the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republican opposition.
The White House wants to include $24 billion (22.5 billion euros) in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine in the budget. This measure has the support of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, but some members of the House of Representatives are vehemently opposed.
The budget vote in Congress regularly becomes an instrument of struggle between the two parties, with each side using the prospect of a strike to extract concessions from the other, until a solution is found at the last minute.
The shutdown is different from the default that threatened the U.S. economy in the spring and was linked to the debt ceiling, which Congress had to raise.
According to the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the amount of frozen expenses in the event of a closure is less than in the event of non-payment.
In the event of a closure, public employees will temporarily not receive salaries, some health systems and air transportation could also be affected, and air traffic controllers will no longer receive their salaries.
The last federal government shutdown dates back to 2018. According to the Committee, around 850,000 public employees received reduced hours.
Source: TSF
