(Washington) The United States entered its 36th on Wednesdaye day of budgetary paralysis, thus breaking the record for the longest “shutdown” in the history of the country, at a time when the harmful consequences for millions of Americans are growing day by day.
Since 1er October, Republicans and Democrats are unable to agree to adopt a new budget and at midnight Washington time on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, the “shutdown” exceeded the previous mark of 35 days, established in 2019 during Donald Trump’s first term.
“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think any of us expected this to drag on this long,” the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, confessed earlier Tuesday.
A coincidence of timing, this record came shortly after the announcement of the results of several key elections, where Democrats scored large victories.
Virginia, with Abigail Spanberger, and New Jersey, with Mikie Sherrill, notably elected Democratic candidates as new governors while New York chose the progressive Zohran Mamdani for mayor. Californians have approved a text aimed at redrawing their electoral map, in response to a similar movement by Republicans in Texas.
So many votes serving as a barometer for the first nine months of Donald Trump’s second term, who pointed to budgetary paralysis to explain his party’s electoral setbacks.
“Trump was not on the ballot, and the budgetary paralysis, (are) the two reasons why the Republicans lost the elections tonight, according to pollsters,” underlined the Republican president on his Truth Social platform.
Lever
In the other camp, it was more time for celebration.
“Democrats are smoking Donald Trump and extremist Republicans across the country,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries joked about X.
The opposition now hopes to be able to use these electoral results as leverage to move the lines of budgetary paralysis.
Because the effects of the blockage are being felt more and more for Americans.
Hundreds of thousands of federal civil servants have been placed on furlough, with deferred pay, and hundreds of thousands more are forced to continue working, without pay either, until the crisis ends.
Social benefits are also seriously disrupted.
Donald Trump vowed Tuesday that since the main food aid program was running out of funds, the payment of this assistance which benefits 42 million Americans would be frozen until the “radical left Democrats” had not voted to end the “shutdown”.
Federal justice, however, ordered the administration to maintain this aid and White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt assured Tuesday that the government would comply with legal decisions.
“SNAP recipients need to understand that it will take time to receive this money, because the Democrats have put the administration in an untenable position,” she added to the press.
” Chaos ”
At airports, the stalemate is also being felt with shortages of air traffic controllers leading to delays and cancellations of flights.
And if the budgetary shutdown continues beyond this week, U.S. airspace could be partially closed, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Tuesday.
“You will see widespread chaos,” he said, putting pressure on the opposition to lift the blockade.
In Congress, the positions of the two camps are not changing: the Republicans are proposing an extension of the current budget, with the same spending levels, and the Democrats are calling for an extension of subsidies for health insurance programs for low-income households.
Due to the rules in force in the Senate, several Democratic votes are necessary to adopt a budget even if the Republicans have the majority.
But Donald Trump rejects any negotiation with the opposition on health without “reopening” the federal state as a prerequisite.
Tuesday at midday, the Senate rejected for the 14the times the Republican proposal. As since the first vote, only three opposition senators voted in favor.
