The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, He has gone with the Democrats to avoid the closure of the Public Administration until November 15. Given the impossibility of the extreme right of his party approving a law that would allow the State to continue carrying out its functions, McCarthy has had to give in on some points to achieve the support of Joe Biden’s party.
The result is that the law has passed with the support of 209 Democrats and only 126 Republicans. With this measure, the Republican ultras are going to toughen their opposition to McCarthy. However, the fact that they do not have the votes to carry out a coup in the House and replace the president limits their ability to act. In any case, the republican fracture is brutal, with the most trumpist wing of the party clearly aligning itself against its own leaders. Donald Trump himself had intervened in the debate. First, he asked Republicans to specifically defund the lawsuits against him. Later, he posted a message on his social network, Truth Social, in which he said: UNTIL YOU ACHIEVE IT ALL, CLOSE IT!
The law must now be approved by the Senate. In principle, that shouldn’t be a problem. There remains, however, one point of contention. The Senate has approved, with the support of both parties – Democrats and Republicans – a similar project but with 6 billion dollars (5.67 billion euros) of military aid to Ukraine. The bill approved by the House does not include anything so that that country can continue defending itself from Russia, in a concession to the far-right wing of the Republican Party, which openly sympathizes with Vladimir Putin.
The leader of the Republican minority of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, does not want to maintain aid to kyiv. But it seems unlikely that he will be exposed to the political consequences of the closure of the Public Administration for this. It is the same thing that happened to the moderate wing and the Democrats of the House of Representatives, when they decided to leave Ukraine out of the vote.
The reason is twofold. On the one hand, the ultras’ argument that their rivals are prioritizing Ukraine over the United States, although completely false – those same ultras have voted against this law that does not include money for Kiev – is very effective among voters. On the other hand, if the State can operate for at least 45 days, there is time to pass another law with help to Ukraine. Otherwise, the entire legislative agenda would be blocked by the closure of the Administration. So the tension continues, although the general feeling is that there will be agreement.