The US government is on the brink of its sixth shutdown since 1977, due to divisions in the US House of Representatives and divisions within the Republican Party between moderates and radicals.
The Republican leadership of the United States House of Representatives’ plan to avoid a government shutdown failed Friday without passing the necessary votes, leaving the country facing potentially disastrous economic consequences.
The initiative was not approved by opposition from the hard wing of the Republican Party, which favors former President Donald Trump and had already spoken out against any interim measure to finance public administration after 00:00 local time on Sunday. October 1, when all available resources will be exhausted.
If the two sides do not reach an agreement in the coming hours – which appears to be an increasingly likely scenario as time goes by – the United States government could face a new partial shutdown scenario on Sunday, which could have consequences for different sectors of your services. .
On Thursday, the White House began notifying federal workers that a government shutdown was imminent — due to a lack of congressional authorization to raise deficit limits, which the Republican majority in the House of Representatives refuses to do – and warned that millions of civilian and military employees will no longer be allowed to receive their salaries from Sunday.
All week, President Joe Biden criticized Republicans for their lack of ability to understand investment needs in key sectors of government, warning that the main victims of the federal shutdown are primarily the neediest families, as well as the Black minority.
With the government shutdown, federal authorities will stop paying out many social supports, such as food and housing subsidies, to families in need.
The strike will still leave around two million civil servants and around 1.3 million soldiers without pay, impacting sensitive services such as border controls, passport services and national parks.
At the root of the problem is a deep divide between radical Republicans and Democrats, who have never been able to find a platform of understanding for the White House’s ambitious public investment plan since the start of Biden’s term.
The more moderate Republicans, led by House of Representatives leader Kevin McCarthy, found interim solutions and postponed the problem with successive sectoral approvals for investments, but the more radical sector – close to former President Donald Trump – has already warned that it will not continue to support Democrats’ “out-of-control spending.”
Last week, a group of about 10 members of Congress from the more radical wing, led by Matt Gaetz, warned that they would not pass the administration’s latest funding plan drafted by Democrats and the moderate Republican wing, claiming that it had put an end to the crisis. climate of tolerance toward “the irresponsibility of White House management.”
This group even threatens to remove McCarthy from his role as leader of the House of Representatives and trigger elections to choose a new party. speakerwith the current leadership accused of being too complacent towards the Biden administration and of being completely insensitive to calls from moderates to avoid the consequences of the government shutdown.
The goal of this Republican faction is to undo an agreement reached by McCarthy and Biden in June under which Congress suspended the United States’ debt ceiling in exchange for the White House accepting specific limits on government spending .
These Republicans were not happy with the agreement and want more cuts. In concrete terms, they want to set a limit on government expenditure of 1.47 billion dollars (1.39 billion euros) for the 2024 budget year, which amounts to an additional cutback of 120 billion dollars (113 billion euros) compared to the then agreed.
Source: DN
