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      White House planning for government shutdown after chaos on Capitol Hill

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      The Republican-led US House of Representatives has all but disappeared for the long weekend after abruptly wrapping up its work on Thursday when the embattled speaker, Kevin McCarthy, failed to advance a stopgap government spending bill, as members continued to clash with just days left to avert a federal shutdown.The White House on Friday planned to begin telling federal agencies to prepare for a shutdown, AP reported, citing a government official.If Congress does not pass a spending bill before 1 October, the lapse in funding is expected to force hundreds of thousands of federal workers to go without pay and bring a halt to some crucial government services.McCarthy, who had projected optimism at the start of Thursday, now faces a reality in which his speakership hangs by a thread.The California Republican was dealt his second humiliating defeat of the week, after a proposal to take up House Republicans’ defense spending bill failed in a vote of 216 to 212, after five hard-right members – Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Eli Crane of Arizona, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Rosendale of Montana – joined Democrats in opposing the motion.The Thursday vote marked the second time this week that the motion had failed, after members of the extreme rightwing House Freedom caucus first blocked the bill on Tuesday.Given that the defense spending bill is usually one of the least contentious spending measures in the House, the second failed vote spelled major trouble for the spending talks. Leaving the floor on Thursday, McCarthy voiced exasperation with his critics within the Republican conference.“I don’t understand why anybody votes against bringing the idea and having the debate,” McCarthy told reporters, adding: “This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down. That doesn’t work.”Donald Trump, the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 despite four criminal indictments, has made a point of interfering from the sidelines, urging Republicans to use government funding as leverage to oppose his prosecution, as two of the criminal cases are federal.Emphasizing the serious threat posed by a shutdown, the White House implored Republicans to “stop playing political games with people’s lives”. “Extreme House Republicans showed yet again that their chaos is marching us toward a reckless and damaging government shutdown,” the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said on Thursday.The White House telling the government to prepare for the possibility of a shutdown is standard practice seven days out from a federal disruption, even one as rare as a government shutdown. As of Friday there was no endgame in sight in the House.McCarthy has repeatedly tried to appease his hard-right flank by agreeing to the steep spending cuts they are demanding to keep government open. But cheered on by Trump, the conservatives have all but seized control in dramatic fashion.On Thursday even a stopgap bill – called a continuing resolution or CR – to keep government funding past the 30 September deadline was a non-starter for some on the right flank.The Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said House Republicans continue to be held captive by the most extreme element of their conference.Many US government services would be disrupted and hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed without pay if federal funding stops on 1 October. Workers deemed “essential” would remain on the job, but without pay.Many government functions would be affected. Among those, the 2 million US military personnel would remain at their posts, but roughly half of the Pentagon’s 800,000 civilian employees would be furloughed. However, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration would continue maintaining nuclear weapons.Agents at the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Secret Service and other federal law enforcement agencies would remain on the job. Prison staffers likewise would continue to work.Criminal prosecutions, including the two federal cases against former Trump, would continue. Most civil litigation would be postponed and aid to local police departments and other grants could be delayed.Border patrol and immigration enforcement agents would continue to work, as would customs officers. The Coast Guard would continue operations.Most of the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer-protection workers would be furloughed, as would half of its antitrust employees.Airport security screeners and air-traffic control workers would be required to work and US embassies and consulates would remain open.It is not clear how the 63 US national parks would be affected. They remained open during the 2018-2019 shutdown, through restrooms and information desks were closed and waste disposal was halted. They were closed during a 2013 shutdown.Scientific research at government institutions would be disrupted. The Securities and Exchange Commission would furlough roughly 90% of its 4,600 employees. More

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      McCarthy’s House speakership hangs by a thread as US shutdown looms

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      Kevin McCarthy ended the week in the same predicament that he started it with: teetering on the edge of a government shutdown as his House speakership hangs by a thread.The House wrapped up its work on Thursday with no clear path forward on advancing a stopgap government spending bill – a grim sign with just nine days left to avert a federal shutdown. In an advisory to members, the House Republican whip, Tom Emmer, said spending negotiations were “ongoing”, but he did not specify any plans for a vote on Friday.The announcement came hours after a procedural motion to advance House Republicans’ defense spending bill was defeated by far-right members for the second time this week. McCarthy and his team spent the week trying to appease and cajole the handful of holdouts within their conference who blocked the bill and also oppose a stopgap measure, but those efforts failed to sway enough members to advance the defense bill.The two failed votes on Tuesday and Thursday were particularly worrisome for McCarthy considering the defense spending bill is generally viewed as the least contentious of the funding bills that Congress must pass.“I don’t understand why anybody votes against bringing the idea and having the debate,” McCarthy told reporters on Thursday. “This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down. That doesn’t work.”If the House and the Senate do not pass a spending bill before 1 October, the lapse in funding will probably force hundreds of thousands of federal workers to go without pay and bring a halt to crucial government services. Emphasizing the serious threat posed by a shutdown, the White House implored Republicans to “stop playing political games with people’s lives”.“Extreme House Republicans showed yet again that their chaos is marching us toward a reckless and damaging government shutdown,” the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said on Thursday. “Extreme House Republicans can’t even get an agreement among themselves to keep the government running or to fund the military.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWith the odds of a shutdown rising, the White House again called on McCarthy to honor the funding deal outlined in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which passed the House and the Senate with bipartisan support earlier this year. That agreement, brokered between President Joe Biden and McCarthy, suspended the debt ceiling and outlined modest spending cuts for fiscal year 2024, but those cuts were deemed insufficient by members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.Capitalizing on House Republicans’ narrow majority, those hard-right members are now demanding steeper cuts in exchange for their support of a stopgap spending bill. McCarthy’s previous concessions to the holdout members, including the launch of an impeachment inquiry against Biden last week, have so far failed to swing enough Republican votes to keep the government open.It also remains unclear whether the Freedom Caucus’s proposed budget – which the White House has warned would include severe funding cuts for border security, education and food safety – can even pass muster with some of the more centrist members of the House Republican conference. Those suggested cuts will certainly fail to win widespread support in the Senate, which has taken a more bipartisan approach to the funding negotiations.In short, House Republicans continue to squabble over a budget plan that has no chance of ever becoming law, and some of them appear willing to shut down the government over the issue.Hanging over the spending fight is the very real question of whether McCarthy will be able to hold on to his speakership. Hard-right Republicans have made clear that, if McCarthy attempts to cut a deal with Democrats to fund the government, they will move to oust the speaker – a viable possibility when it only takes one member to call a vote to vacate the chair. But if hard-right Republicans do not drop their opposition to a stopgap bill, McCarthy may ultimately need Democrats’ support if he wants to avoid a shutdown.Depending on whether McCarthy can strike a deal with his critics, the speaker may soon have to choose between keeping the government open and keeping his gavel. More

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      McCarthy says hard-right Republicans ‘want to burn whole place down’

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      The House Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, was dealt his second humiliating defeat of the week on Thursday, when his conference again failed to approve a procedural motion as members continued to clash over government spending levels with just days left to avert a federal shutdown.With no clear path forward in Republicans’ negotiations, the House concluded its work on Thursday without any stated plan to reconvene on Friday.“Discussions related to [fiscal year 2024] appropriations are ongoing,” Congressman Tom Emmer, the House Republican whip, said in a statement. “Members are advised that ample notice will be given ahead of any potential votes tomorrow or this weekend.”A proposal to take up House Republicans’ defense spending bill failed in a vote of 216 to 212, with five hard-right members joining Democrats in opposing the motion. The vote marked the second time this week that the motion had failed, after members of the House Freedom caucus first blocked the bill on Tuesday.The defeat was interpreted as a dismal sign for House Republicans’ prospects of approving a separate stopgap spending bill before government funding runs out at the end of the month.McCarthy had projected optimism heading into the Thursday vote, saying he and his allies had made substantial progress in their talks with the holdout Republicans on Wednesday. But five members of the House Freedom caucus – Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Eli Crane of Arizona, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Rosendale of Montana – still opposed the procedural motion on Thursday.Leaving the floor on Thursday, McCarthy voiced exasperation with his critics within the Republican conference.“I don’t understand why anybody votes against bringing the idea and having the debate,” McCarthy told reporters. “This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down. That doesn’t work.”The Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, chastised his Republican colleagues over their internal divisions, accusing them of jeopardizing Americans’ wellbeing for the sake of a political stunt.Given that the defense spending bill is usually one of the least contentious spending measures in the House, the second failed vote spelled major trouble for the spending talks. If no agreement is reached on a series of funding bills, the federal government will shutter on 30 September. In the event of a shutdown, starting 1 October, hundreds of thousands of federal workers would likely go without pay and key healthcare and other public programs would be affected.“House Republicans continue to be held captive by the most extreme element of their conference, and it’s hurting the American people,” Jeffries said at a press conference. “Why are the American people facing down another manufactured GOP crisis? They need to end their civil war.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThere are several unknowns still hanging over McCarthy’s effort, which, as the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, has pointed out, could be politically damaging to the party.The first is whether hard-right members of the House Freedom caucus – who have capitalized on McCarthy’s narrow majority – will eventually abandon their blockade as the shutdown deadline approaches.The second is if whatever bill Republicans do pass will include the Ukraine aid and disaster relief funding the Democratic-led Senate is demanding. Without Senate agreement, any measure cannot be enacted.Explaining her vote against advancing the defense bill on Thursday, Greene said she wanted to send a message about the need to end funding for Ukraine. “I just voted NO to the rule for the Defense bill because they refused to take the war money for Ukraine out and put it in a separate bill,” Greene said on X, formerly known as Twitter.McCarthy has made clear to his party that he will approach Biden’s pending request for an additional $24bn in support for Ukraine with considerable scepticism – taking into consideration extremist members, like Greene and Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida, who have signaled that their stance against Ukraine funding is non-negotiable.“Is [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy elected to Congress? Is he our president? I don’t think I have to commit anything and I think I have questions for him,” McCarthy told ABC News, as the Ukrainian president prepared to meet Joe Biden at the White House.Donald Trump, the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, has complicated matters from the sidelines, urging Republicans to use government funding as leverage for his own personal gains.“A very important deadline is approaching at the end of the month,” Trump posted on Truth Social, his own social media platform. “Republicans in Congress can and must defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized Government that refuses to close the Border, and treats half the Country as Enemies of the State.”The former president, who faces 91 criminal charges over election subversion, retention of classified information and hush-money payments, as well as assorted civil lawsuits, added: “This is also the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other patriots.” More

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      The Borking of Joe Biden

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      If there was any doubt that the Republican House was no more sophisticated than a preschool playground, last week’s opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden settled it with a nasty kick of sand in Democrats’ face.How else can you describe the pretext for this fishing expedition other than “You started it”? If our guy got embroiled in impeachment and protracted legal proceedings during election season, well then, damn it, so will yours.Whereas Democrats began the first Trump impeachment inquiry after it was revealed that he tried to extort a political favor from the president of Ukraine in exchange for military aid, and the second impeachment after an insurrection, the Biden inquiry is proceeding with no clear evidence of any misdeeds by the president.This is just the latest asymmetric tit-for-tat by Republicans.Even many Republicans in Congress don’t buy into this kind of baloney, as we’ve learned from a series of Washington confessionals and from several Republicans who have questioned whether their side has the goods or if this is the best use of their time. As Kevin McCarthy announced the impeachment inquiry, you could almost see his wispy soul sucked out Dementor-style, joining whatever ghostly remains of Paul Ryan’s abandoned integrity still wander the halls of Congress.But this isn’t the first time we’ve witnessed this kind of sorry perversion of Democratic precedent. What Democrats do first in good faith, Republicans repeat in bad faith. Time and again, partisan steps that Democrats take with caution are transmogrified into extraordinary retaliation by Republicans.And so, Al Gore’s challenge of the 2000 election results, ending in his decorous acceptance of the results after a bitter court ruling, is reincarnated as an unhinged insurrection at the Capitol in 2021.In exchange for the brief moment after the 2004 election when some Democrats claimed irregularities with the Ohio ballot process, we get Republicans taking baseless claims of voter fraud in 2020 to thermonuclear level.In June 1992, Biden, then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on President George H.W. Bush not to nominate any candidate for the Supreme Court until after the fall election, saying it was “fair” and “essential” to keep what could be a sharp political conflict out of the campaign’s final days — as well as the nomination process itself. Of course, with no vacancy at hand, the stakes in that instance were nonexistent. But just after Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, Mitch McConnell took the extraordinary position that he would not submit any Supreme Court nominee from President Barack Obama for Senate consideration in an election year. By ignoring that nominee, Merrick Garland, Republicans maintained a conservative majority on the court. McConnell, of course, disingenuously cited the “Biden rule” in his decision.It is a bitter paradox that Biden, long a careful moderate, has suffered the brunt of this vindictive one-upmanship. The trouble with being around for so long, as Biden has been, is that there is always someone who remembers “the time when you” and holds a grudge.And while there’s no direct connection between the 1987 defeat of Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork for the Supreme Court and the current impeachment inquiry, I can’t help thinking that the rage that set off among conservative Republicans helped ignite the flames of animosity that have only intensified over the years, yet another instance of a Democratic precedent being grossly misinterpreted as a political ploy rather than as a principled stand.It was Biden, who as chair of the Judiciary Committee and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, was compelled to lead the fight against Bork. There was plenty of reason to block Bork: He had opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the principle of one-person, one-vote; the judicial protection of gay rights; and the idea of a constitutional right to privacy as the foundation of not only Roe v. Wade, but also the right to contraception.But the fight made even some Democrats nervous. “Will Democrats Self-Destruct on Bork?” the liberal columnist Mark Shields asked.At that time, for one party to lead the fight to reject a Supreme Court nominee on ideological grounds was extraordinary. The vehemence with which some senators, like Ted Kennedy, approached it exacerbated the rancor. This sort of process became known as “Borking,” which, for Republicans, meant using someone’s record to destroy their character. To their minds, even though six Republicans voted against Bork, Democrats had politicized and poisoned the nomination process.It’s hard not to see the unhinged attempt to take down Biden now as some kind of warped reincarnation of “Borking,” yet another twisted abuse of Democratic precedent.The misdeeds Trump committed in office clearly warranted an unprecedented double impeachment. They certainly did not warrant this inquiry into Biden.We are left to hope that the effort will now blow up in the G.O.P.’s face. Considering the shameless stuntathon of today’s House Republicans, this may be the closest we get to what’s fair.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      Merrick Garland faces down Republican attacks over Hunter Biden inquiry

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      Merrick Garland faced down the latest Republican attacks on the justice department’s handling of Hunter Biden and other issues on Wednesday, vowing to “not be intimidated”.The House judiciary inquiry came just a week before the Joe Biden impeachment hearing, which will also focus on the scope of Hunter Biden’s legal troubles and alleged corruption. Both are part of the Republican party’s ongoing attempt to erode trust in federal institutions such as the Department of Justice and its FBI arm, claiming they are partisan actors.“Our job is to pursue justice, without fear or favor. Our job is not to do what is politically convenient,” Garland said in his opening statement. “Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress or from anyone else about who or what to criminally investigate. As the president himself has said, and I reaffirmed today, I am not the president’s lawyer. I will add I am not Congress’s prosecutor.”The committee’s chairman, Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, launched into those queries in his opening statement, criticizing the attorney general’s decision to appoint David Weiss as a special counsel to handle the investigation into the president’s son. Weiss is the federal prosecutor in Delaware who was appointed by Donald Trump and kept in his job even after Joe Biden took the White House and swapped out most other US attorneys nationwide.Despite that, Jordan thinks Weiss is undermining the investigation into Hunter Biden, which has centered on claims he failed to pay income taxes and lied about using drugs while buying a gun. Biden was indicted on the latter charge last week.“He could have selected anyone,” Jordan said of Garland. “He could have picked anyone inside government, outside government. He could have picked former attorney generals, former special counsels, but he picks the one guy … he knows will protect Joe Biden. He picks David Weiss.”Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, took a more colorful approach, criticizing Biden’s public loyalty to his son.“Has anyone at the department told President Biden to knock it off with Hunter? I mean, you guys are charging Hunter Biden on some crimes, investigating him on others, you’ve got the president bringing Hunter Biden around to state dinners. Has anyone told him to knock it off?” Gaetz asked.The judiciary committee’s highest-ranking Democrat, Jerry Nadler of New York, also asked Garland what would happen if the FBI was defunded, which has become a surprising rallying cry for extreme rightwing Republicans such as representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, as well as the presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who claim the law enforcement agency has become politicized.Defunding the FBI “would leave the United States naked to the malign influence of the Chinese Communist party, to the attacks by Iranians on American citizens and attempts to assassinate former officials, to the Russian aggression, to North Korean cyber-attacks, to violent crime in the United States, which the FBI helps to fight against, to all kinds of espionage, to domestic violent extremists who have attacked our churches, our synagogues or mosques and who have killed individuals out of racial hatred,” Garland said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“I just, I cannot imagine the consequences of defunding the FBI, but they would be catastrophic.”Amid the back and forth, the White House put out a statement, calling the hearing a “circus” that wasted Garland’s time promoting conspiracy theories rather than dealing with more pressing business, like funding the government ahead of a shutdown on 30 September.“Extreme House Republicans are running a not-so-sophisticated distraction campaign to try to cover up their own actions that are hurtling America to a dangerous and costly government shutdown,” the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, Ian Sams, said of the hearing, which the judiciary committee regularly holds with the attorney general.“They cannot even pass a military funding bill because extreme House Republicans are demanding devastating cuts like slashing thousands of preschool slots nationwide and thousands of law enforcement jobs including border agents, so they cranked up a circus of a hearing full of lies and disinformation with the sole goal of baselessly attacking President Biden and his family,” Sams said. More

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      Republicans seem even further from resolution as US shutdown deadline nears

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      Republican leaders seemed to move further away from a resolution to the impending government shutdown on Tuesday.In a sign of how bad the party’s split has become, a procedural vote on the short-term funding bill expected to happen today was cancelled, and an attempt to advance a Pentagon spending bill was voted down, thanks to rightwing Republicans. The vote intensifies the risk of a shutdown on 1 October and Kevin McCarthy losing his speakership.As another week of negotiations wears on, Republicans in the House of Representatives are in a state of “civil war”, according to the Democratic minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries. Media reports suggested that a newly aggressive McCarthy was ready to force a showdown with the hardliners in his party less than two weeks before the deadline to keep federal agencies afloat.But the day’s chaos revealed that he still faced a steep uphill climb, with far-right Republicans Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene signaling earlier in the day that even a resolution to temporarily delay a shutdown was out of reach.Part of the holdup includes proposed amendments from far-right Republicans on the continuing resolution that would prevent funds from being used for Ukraine aid and other initiatives. Greene’s list of amendments also included a ban on funding for Covid-19 vaccine mandates.A shutdown would mean thousands of government employees would be required to stop working until an agreement is reached, and many government benefits delayed. But even with Mitch McConnell’s warning to his own party, some hardliners continue to delay progress.Late on Sunday a group of hardline and moderate Republicans had reached agreement on a short-term stopgap spending bill, known as a “continuing resolution”, or CR, that could help McCarthy move forward on defence legislation.The measure would keep the government running until the end of October, giving Congress more time to enact full-scale appropriations for 2024. The Politico website reported that the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative thinktank, had thrown its weight behind the proposed CR.But it remains unclear whether it can garner enough Republican support to pass the House. At least a dozen members came out against it or expressed scepticism. Matt Gaetz, a Florida congressman who has called for McCarthy’s removal, tweeted that the CR is “a betrayal of Republicans” while Majorie Taylor Greene of Georgia posted: “I’m a NO!”The standoff poses the biggest threat to McCarthy in his eight months as the top House Republican as he struggles to unite a fractured caucus. On Tuesday Politico reported that he intends to come out fighting by putting the CR to a floor vote and daring his detractors to put themselves on the record by voting against it.“That would set McCarthy & Co. up to blame those holdouts for undercutting the party’s negotiating hand with Democrats, ultimately leading to the Senate jamming the House with a shutdown-averting stopgap without any Republican concessions,” Politico wrote.Last week McCarthy dared his opponents to hold a vote to remove him, reportedly telling them behind closed doors: “File the fucking motion!”He also vowed to move forward this week on an $886bn fiscal 2024 defense appropriations bill, which stalled last week as hardliners withheld support to demand a topline fiscal 2024 spending level of $1.47tn – about $120bn less than what McCarthy and Biden agreed to in May.McCarthy told Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures programme: “We’ll bring it to the floor, win or lose, and show the American public who’s for the Department of Defense, who’s for our military.” But in a fresh setback on Tuesday, McCarthy was forced to postpone a procedural vote on the measure to provide more time for negotiations.The White House has already threatened to veto the defence bill. The resolution agreed upon on Sunday is also unlikely to succeed with Democrats and become law. It would impose a spending cut of more than 8% on agencies other than the defense department and Department of Veterans Affairs and includes immigration and border security restrictions but not funding for Ukraine.Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the progressive group Indivisible and a former congressional aide, said: “You have a Republican party that is focused on advancing extremist policy instead of on doing the basic work of governing. Every Republican in the House is basically enabling this process by virtue of being unwilling to break with the extremists.“What you’re seeing with McCarthy is his own intentions are irrelevant. He is simply caving to the most extreme folks within the caucus and they are driving the agenda.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe Republican-controlled House and Democratic-led Senate have until 30 September to pass spending legislation that Joe Biden can sign into law to keep federal agencies afloat. With a 221-212 majority, McCarthy can afford to lose no more than four votes to pass legislation that Democrats unite in opposing.Some members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, largely aligned with Donald Trump, are openly embracing a shutdown as a negotiating tactic to get their way on spending and conservative policy priorities.Congressman Chip Roy, a Freedom Caucus member, last week described a shutdown as “almost” inevitable and warned: “We have to hold the line.”Ultimately Republicans could be forced to move directly into negotiations with Senate Democrats on appropriations bills that could pass both chambers quickly and be signed into law by Biden.But this could fuel calls for McCarthy to be ousted from hardline conservatives and others who have accused him of failing to keep promises he made to become speaker in January.Congressman Ralph Norman, a Freedom Caucus member, told the Reuters news agency: “It’d be the end of his speakership.”Adding to the chaos, McCarthy apparently sought to curry favour with the far right last week by announcing the opening of an impeachment inquiry into Biden despite no tangible evidence that the president has committed an impeachable offence.On Tuesday he told reporters: “I never quit.” But his young speakership has never looked so vulnerable.Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “It’s obviously uncertain. My hunch is what we’re going to see is McCarthy’s going to want to pass something and he will probably be forced to make concessions that are unacceptable to Democrats and maybe some Republicans. So this is the beginning of a process, not the culmination of it.”McCarthy only gained the speaker’s gavel in January after a tortuous 15 rounds of voting and hard bargaining with the far right. Bill Galston, a former policy adviser to Bill Clinton, said: “Kevin McCarthy, in order to become speaker of the House, handed out a slew of promissory notes. Those notes are all coming due at the same time and I don’t think he has enough political money in the bank to make good on the notes.“He’s the Mr Micawber of Republican politics, just hoping that something will turn up.” More

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      US House Republicans pitch short-term spending deal as shutdown looms

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      With a possible partial US government shutdown looming in two weeks, Kevin McCarthy on Sunday said he would bring a defense spending bill to a vote “win or lose” this week, despite resistance from hardline fellow Republicans.The House speaker is struggling to bring fiscal 2024 spending legislation to the floor, with Republicans fractured by conservative demands for spending to be cut to a 2022 level of $1.47tn – $120bn below the spending on which McCarthy agreed with Joe Biden in May.Late on Sunday, members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus and the more moderate Main Street Caucus announced a deal on a short-term stopgap bill to keep the government open until 31 October, but with a spending cut of more than 8% on agencies apart from the defense and veterans affairs departments.The measure, which is unlikely to become law, also includes conservative restrictions on immigration and the US border with Mexico.Republicans have said that such a deal could allow the House to move forward on the defense spending bill this week.But it was unclear whether the measure had sufficient Republican support to pass the chamber. The spending cuts were also likely to draw opposition from Democrats in the House and Senate, who reject the immigration provisions.Republicans hold a narrow 221-212 majority in the chamber as they bicker over spending and pursue a new impeachment drive against Joe Biden while the United States faces a possible fourth partial government shutdown in a decade.McCarthy has begun to face calls for floor action seeking his ouster from hardline conservatives and others who have accused him of failing to keep promises he made to become speaker in January after a revolt from some of the most conservative Republicans in the House.The Republican-controlled House and Democratic-led Senate have until 1 October to avoid a partial shutdown by enacting appropriations bills that Biden, a Democrat, can sign into law, or by passing a short-term stopgap spending measure to give lawmakers more time for debate.McCarthy signaled a tougher stand with hardliners, telling the Fox News Sunday Morning Futures program that he would bring the stalled defense bill to the floor this week. The House last week postponed a vote on beginning debate on the defense appropriations bill due to opposition from the hardliners.“We’ll bring it to the floor, win or lose, and show the American public who’s for the department of defense, who’s for our military,” McCarthy said.McCarthy also said he wants to make sure there is no shutdown on 1 October, saying: “A shutdown would only give strength to the Democrats.”McCarthy has held closed-door discussions over the weekend aimed at overcoming a roadblock by the conservative hardliners to spending legislation. They want assurances that legislation will include their deep spending cuts, as well as conservative policy priorities including provisions related to tighter border security that are unlikely to secure Democratic votes.“We made some good progress,” McCarthy said.Elise Stefanik, the number four House Republican, told the Fox News Sunday program that she was optimistic about moving forward on appropriations after closed-door discussions.But Republican representative Nancy Mace told ABC’s This Week that she expects a shutdown and did not rule out support for a vote to oust McCarthy’s ouster. Mace complained that the speaker has not made good on promises to her involving action on women’s issues and gun violence.“Everything’s on the table at this point for me,” Mace said.Mace played down the consequences of a shutdown, saying much of the government would remain in operation and that the hiatus would give government workers time off with back pay at a later date.Democratic former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a shutdown would risk harming the most vulnerable members of society who depend on government assistance.“We’re talking about diminishing even something as simple and fundamental as feeding the children,” Pelosi told MSNBC. “We have to try to avoid it.“ More

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      in US Politics

      Why are Republicans launching Biden impeachment inquiry and what’s next?

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      Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the US House, announced on Tuesday he is launching a formal impeachment inquiry into president Joe Biden – despite resistance from Republicans in the House and Senate, where an impeachment vote would almost certainly fail.The order comes as McCarthy faces mounting pressure from some far-right members of his chamber, who have threatened to tank his deal to avert a government shutdown by the end of the month if he does not meet their list of demands.Here’s what you need to know.Why is McCarthy launching the impeachment inquiry?According to McCarthy, findings from Republican-led investigations over the summer recess revealed “a culture of corruption”, and that Biden lied about his lack of involvement and knowledge of his family’s overseas business dealings.“These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption. And they warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives,” McCarthy said during a brief press conference at the US Capitol on Tuesday.Many of the allegations center on the president’s son, Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, during his father’s term as vice-president. Republicans allege that Joe Biden improperly benefited from his son’s foreign connections but, after several months, have produced no evidence. Watchdog groups say Republicans do not actually have evidence to back up their claims.McCarthy previously indicated an impeachment inquiry “would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person”, in a statement to rightwing Breitbart News earlier this month. But he declared the launch of an impeachment probe just a week and a half later, without a House floor vote, which likely means he does not have the support.What happens now?McCarthy has directed the chairs of three House committees – judiciary, oversight and ways and means – to lead the impeachment probe.Each of the committees have held hearings related to alleged crimes committed by the Biden family, and the chairs earlier launched a joint investigation into the Department of Justice claiming “misconduct” in its investigation of Hunter Biden for tax evasion and illegally possessing a gun.The White House sent a letter to news outlets on Wednesday urging members of the media to ramp up scrutiny of House Republicans’ “demonstrably false claims”.Where do the Republican investigations into Biden stand?After months of investigations, Republicans have failed to produce evidence that President Biden committed any crimes, according to the White House, which on Tuesday called the impeachment inquiry “extreme politics at its worst”.A watchdog group found that the house oversight committee investigation into Biden’s family, led by its chair, James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, has been “eight months of abject failure”. Comer overhyped allegations of bribery and corruption without evidence, according to a report by the Congressional Integrity Project released Monday.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionDo all Republicans support impeachment?Republicans in the House are split over the impeachment inquiry, with some supporting McCarthy’s decision with others publicly expressing their opposition.Don Bacon of Nebraska said on Tuesday he opposed the impeachment inquiry, saying McCarthy should hold a vote because there is currently no evidence suggesting Biden committed a crime.Ken Buck of Colorado, a member of the House freedom caucus, said in an interview on MSNBC days before McCarthy ordered the impeachment inquiry that “evidence linking President Biden to a high crime or misdemeanor … doesn’t exist right now”.Buck’s statement clashes with those of Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a fellow freedom caucus member who has trumpeted an impeachment vote, and of Matt Gaetz of Florida, who called the impeachment inquiry a “baby step”.Donald Trump has also been outspoken about impeaching Biden and reportedly supported Republican impeachment efforts from behind the scenes ahead of McCarthy’s announcement.Senate Republicans remained largely ambivalent on whether they supported the House’s impeachment inquiry, according to Politico, with some saying they hoped it would help McCarthy secure enough votes to avoid a government shutdown.Is impeachment likely to prevail?It’s unlikely. Impeachment would require a simple majority vote in the House, where it would likely struggle to garner enough support, before it went to the Senate.The Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority, requires a two-thirds vote to convict. More