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The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, arrives at the US Capitol on Monday. Moderate and progressive Democrats are split over the size of Joe Biden’s social spending package.
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, arrives at the US Capitol on Monday. Moderate and progressive Democrats are split over the size of Joe Biden’s social spending package. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, arrives at the US Capitol on Monday. Moderate and progressive Democrats are split over the size of Joe Biden’s social spending package. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Republicans block measure to fund US government beyond Thursday

This article is more than 2 years old

Democrats have just three days to find alternative deal and are also facing a potential default

Senate Republicans have blocked a measure to suspend the US federal debt ceiling and avoid a potentially catastrophic government shutdown, leaving Democrats who narrowly control both chambers of Congress only three days to find another way to keep the government operating beyond Thursday – when current funding expires.

The legislation was aimed at beating two fast-approaching deadlines that, if left unaddressed, threaten to destabilise the US economy as it struggles to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The near party-line vote of 48 votes to advance against 50 opposed fell short of the 60 votes needed to push the bill ahead in the 100-seat Senate. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, voted “no” to allow him to call another vote.

Democrats now have just three days to find another way to keep the government operating beyond Thursday.

Republican senator Richard Shelby predicted that lawmakers would not resolve the standoff any time soon. “Probably will be here Thursday,” he told reporters.

Lawmakers also will have to figure out how to raise the debt ceiling to head off the risk of default, with independent analysts warning that the US Treasury is likely to fully exhaust its borrowing authority sometime between 15 October and 4 November.

Schumer, who has warned that a default would hammer the economy, said afterward that Democrats would take further action this week to avoid a government shutdown and debt default but did not specify what the next step would be.

“Our country is now staring down the barrel of two Republican-manufactured disasters,” he said on the Senate floor after the vote.

A government shutdown – or worse, a default – would be a huge hit to Joe Biden’s Democrats, who have positioned themselves as the party of responsible government after Republican Donald Trump’s chaotic presidency.

Republicans have refused to vote with Democrats on the debt ceiling despite Democrats doing so under the Trump administration, a time when Republican tax cuts added to the national debt.

“We will support a clean continuing resolution that will prevent a government shutdown,” said the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, in a speech on the chamber floor. “We will not provide Republican votes for raising the debt limit.”

In a letter released to reporters, the House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, and 63 other Democrats accused McConnell of “manufacturing a crisis” and said: “Holding the debt limit hostage is … dangerous, illogical and irresponsible.”

Republicans have said they want Democrats to lift the debt limit on their own, saying they do not support their spending plans. Democrats point out that much of the nation’s new debt was incurred during Trump’s administration.

Democrats are also at odds over two pillars of Biden’s domestic agenda – a $1trn infrastructure bill and a $3.5trn social spending package.

The rift risks derailing Biden’s presidency and the party’s hopes of keeping its congressional majorities in next year’s midterm elections.

Biden spent the weekend negotiating with lawmakers over the phone, according to administration officials. The White House and Democrats in Congress were considering whether to narrow benefits for electric vehicles and community-college tuition in the social spending bill, sources said.

Biden told reporters that Democrats might not reach an agreement this week, an assessment backed by the second-most senior Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin. “I don’t think anybody has a rosy scenario,” Durbin told reporters.

The infrastructure bill, which is favoured by moderates, would fund road, bridge, airport, school and other projects. It passed the Senate last month with considerable Republican support.

But progressive Democrats have threatened to oppose the measure unless moderates in both the House of Representatives and Senate agree to the larger package, which Democrats intend to pass without Republican votes.

Moderate Democrats say the social spending bill’s $3.5trn price tag is too high, and Democrats – including the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi – have acknowledged it will need to be scaled back to pass.

Biden’s spending plan would provide an expansion of existing health, education and childcare programs alongside new federal efforts to curb climate change. But it must pass via reconciliation, a budgetary measure which means a simple majority is needed.

Republicans are uniformly opposed to Biden’s proposal, which would be paid for by increasing the tax rate on businesses earning more than $5m a year and raising the top rate on individuals from 37% to 39.6% for those earning more than $400,000, or $450,000 for couples.

Gabrielle Canon contributed reporting

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