The US Senate yesterday approved a budget deal including a stopgap government funding bill, but it was too late to prevent a federal shutdown that was already underway in an embarrassing setback for the Republican-controlled Congress.
The shutdown, which technically started at midnight, was the second this year under US President Donald Trump, who played little role in attempts by party leaders earlier this week to head it off and end months of fiscal squabbling.
The US Office of Personnel Management advised millions of federal employees shortly after midnight to check with their agencies about whether they should report to work yesterday.
The Senate’s approval of the budget and stopgap funding package, by a vote of 71-28, meant it would go next to the House of Representatives, where lawmakers were divided along party lines and passage was uncertain.
House Republican leaders on Thursday had offered assurances that the package would be approved, but so did Senate leaders and the critical midnight deadline, when current government funding authority expired, was still missed.
The reason for that was a nine-hour, on-again, off-again Senate floor speech by US Senator Rand Paul, who objected to deficit spending in the bill.
The unexpected turn of events dragged the Senate proceedings into the wee hours and underscored the persistent inability of Congress and Trump to deal efficiently with Washington’s most basic fiscal obligations of keeping the government open.
The shutdown could be brief. If the House acts before daybreak to approve the package from the Senate, there would be no practical interruption in federal government business.
If it does not, the result would be an actual shutdown, the second of the year, after a three-day shutdown last month.
Paul said during his marathon speech, which strained fellow senators’ patience, that the two-year budget deal would “loot the Treasury.”
The bill would raise military and domestic spending by almost US$300 billion over the next two years. With no offsets in the form of other spending cuts or new tax revenues, that additional spending would be financed by borrowed money.
The budget part of the package was a bipartisan attempt by Senate leaders to end for many months, at least beyond November’s midterm congressional elections, the fiscal policy quarrels that increasingly consume Congress.
However, the deficit spending in the bill would add more red ink to Washington’s balance sheet and further underscore a shift in Republican thinking that Paul was trying to draw attention to.
Once known as the party of fiscal conservatism, the Republicans and Trump approved a sweeping tax overhaul bill in December last year that is to add between US$1.5 trillion and US$20 trillion to national debt over 10 years.
“I ran for office because I was very critical of [former US] President [Barack] Obama’s trillion-dollar deficits,” Paul said.
“Now we have Republicans hand in hand with Democrats offering us trillion-dollar deficits. I can’t ... in good faith, just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits. Really who is to blame? Both parties,” he said.
Paul voted for the deficit-financed tax bill in December last year.
The shutdown in Washington came at a sensitive time for financial markets. Stocks plunged on Thursday in New York on heavy volume, throwing off course a nearly nine-year bull run.
Markets barely flinched at last month’s shutdown, but that was before a dizzying sell-off that started on Tuesday last week amid concerns about inflation and higher interest rates.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was