The Vice President-elect, JD Vance, reportedly expressed his dissatisfaction with House Democrats for voting against a spending package that was endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump.
He also accused his political opponents of choosing a government shutdown over providing the prospective president with “negotiating leverage during his first term.”
At the House on Thursday evening, Republicans and Democrats faced the prospect of a government suspension.
As the clock approached midnight on Friday, legislators from both parties engaged in a heated debate regarding who would be held accountable in the event that federal agencies come to a complete halt.
Throughout the day, senators and representatives had been compelled to mobilize support for a bill that was endorsed by Trump.
The bill included a two-year suspension of the debt limit, a short-term government funding extension, and substantial disaster relief funds.
However, the proposal was ultimately rejected by Democrats.
Members of the House Democratic caucus exclaimed “hell no” during a tense meeting, expressing their outrage at what they perceived as a rushed, partisan maneuver that was designed to provide the incoming president with an early advantage in difficult negotiations.
Vance attributed the blame to Democrats in his post-vote interview with reporters.
“Look, I’ll say one thing. The Democrats just voted to shut down the government, even though we had a clean CR, because they didn’t want to give the president negotiating leverage during his first term — during the first year of his new term. And number two, because they would rather shut down the government and fight for global censorship. They’ve asked for a shutdown and I think that’s exactly what they’re going to.” Vance said.
The vice president-elect declined to respond to a subsequent inquiry from reporters, citing the fact that 38 Republicans also opposed the legislation.
The defeated package had significantly eliminated previous bipartisan reforms that were designed to regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), intermediaries in the pharmaceutical supply chain.
This omission incited anger among lawmakers, who had previously witnessed the collapse of an agreement after Trump abandoned it.
Consequently, numerous rank-and-file members were hesitant to place their trust in the top party negotiators.
Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise promised to identify an alternative approach because the House measure failed to achieve the necessary two-thirds supermajority.
In the interim, Johnson was under pressure from certain Republicans to reorganize influential committees if certain members declined to endorse new proposals.
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