It’s hard to solve.
wait. Will the government run out of money next week?
I thought the house and the Senate were just Passed the budget?
When will the House and Senate vote on President Trump’s “big and beautiful bill”?
Isn’t this solving the debt ceiling?
If it’s hard to follow, I don’t blame you. Congress actually has four different questions. So let me try to solve it for you.
The theme of Trump’s speech to Congress reveals
Let’s first explain government funding.
The deadline for Congress to avoid the government shutdown is Friday, March 14 at 11:59:59 PM ET. The House and Senate must figure out how to re-raise all current funds at the existing level in a short time, or face closures. Another option – at the moment is totally unrealistic – the House and Senate can pass the annual 12-year spending bill that operates the government. Last year, the House approved several of them, but the Senate had no bills.
Remember, these are the spending measures for fiscal year 2025. They will expire on October 1, so Democrats and Republicans have stumbled upon the effort.
Congress finally approved a “slim” parking spending package before Christmas to keep the lights on. That was after another temporary measure was taken to avoid the start of the fiscal year 2025 from October 1 last year.
What does all this mean? Well, for beginners, Congress has already funded the government in fiscal 2026 – starting on October 1. Legislators are trapped on a vicious treadmill. That’s because Congress has completed the bills on time for several years. Congress did not approve the final expenditure plan for fiscal 2024 until last April, seven months, after the deadline.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-la and the President Donald Trump Signals that they are another “year-long” ongoing solution or a good performance in Congress speech. This is just renewing the existing level of funds in the fall. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla).
But some conservatives oppose all CR. The Military Eagles have not weighed the consequences of CR, but those who support the military usually hate them. reason? The Pentagon accounts for about 55% of all funds that Congress allocates to federal departments and agencies each year. Therefore, CR has caused disproportionate damage to the armed forces. No department likes to operate under CR because spending won’t increase, but for the military, it’s especially disturbing because it has a lot of federal funding in Congress.
Several Democrats boycott Trump’s “Pep rally” speech to Congress
Funding for the government is completely separate from what the House and Senate Republicans have prepared in late February: the budget. Yes, “budget” sounds like a legislative tool to manage the government, but that’s not the case. “Budget” is a universal, non-binding blueprint that lists potential spending for all federal programs. These include “discretionary” spending – Congress allocates government spending annually and “mandatory” spending. These include lawmakers at some point in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The beneficiaries of these programs are assisted according to their qualifications. A large portion of mandatory expenditures include interest on debts. Congress hasn’t enacted a bill to change spending every year, but that’s probably where Republicans focus on cuts.
Please note that rights and mandatory expenditures account for approximately 65% of each government spend. Earlier, I wrote about how the Pentagon consumes over 50% of its discretionary expenditure. It’s a picky one compared to the doorway to get the rights. That’s why Republicans cut spending and tax cuts challenges without blowing out bigger holes in the already yawning deficit divide.
But mechanically, this is what must happen next.
The House and Senate approved different budget frameworks. House plans have been underway, with massive spending cuts and a renewal of Trump’s tax cuts in 2017. The Senate version is more streamlined – focusing on border security.
This is the most important thing I will write about in this column.
The only reason Republicans want to create a budget blueprint is that they can avoid Senate lawsuits when they make the last legislation. It’s about mathematics. Republicans have only 53 Senate seats. 60 votes are required to overcome for votes. So while Republicans may be able to get needles and threads and approve the plan in a narrow sense in the house, it is difficult to get it through the Senate.
unless…
They can avoid filth.
That’s why Republicans in the House and Senate prepare for a budget framework. They then have the opportunity to incorporate the final bill into the budget settlement vehicle to avoid litigation. Otherwise, the performance will be over.
Despite this, the Republican Party still has many problems.
To use budget settlement, the House and Senate must approve the same framework. That hasn’t happened yet. Then, through the budget settlement process, the House and Senate must be consistent with the same bill.
There is a lot of work in the future.
And don’t forget that the government shutdown may cover up or delay all of this.
This brings us to the debt ceiling.
First, let’s define the debt ceiling. This is an obvious problem with government funding, and budget framework lawmakers are working on it now. The debt ceiling is just a threshold for how much red ink the federal government can carry at a time. That number is now about $36 trillion. Failure to address the debt ceiling could make the stock and bond markets clumsy.
President Trump has tried to get Congressional Republicans to add or suspend the debt ceiling to the CR to avoid the government shutdown last fall. The president has used this demand to skydive for talks that fund the government at the last minute – though Johnson and others No news about the request was heard until two days before the deadline.
It is unclear whether the debt ceiling can end in the next few months with expenditure measures or is related to another legislation. Some Republicans have never voted for the increase in debt ceiling. Successfully increasing the debt limit may require the assistance of Democrats who vote on the floor. These numbers cannot be resolved by House Republicans. Also, since Republicans only have 53 Senate seats, Democrats must violate the plan.
The government technically had a debt ceiling in January. But through a mechanism that the Ministry of Finance calls it an “extraordinary measure”, the government can delay the actual decline date by several months. This means that the real debt ceiling deadline could occur in April or May.
So you have. Four different fiscal issues faced by Congress: government funding, a “budget” of “reconciliation” procedures that avoid litigation, President Trump’s policy agenda, and a race to avoid a collision of debt ceilings.
None of them is directly related, but they are all intertwined. The only thing Congress has to do is fund the government and fight the debt ceiling. Imbroglio on these issues may work to complete the budget framework and promote the president’s policy agenda.
