‘Time is Running Out’ - Big Four Leave Oval Office Without Plan to Avert Shutdown
04:23 GMT 28.02.2024 (Updated: 04:25 GMT 28.02.2024)
© AP Photo / Evan Vucci
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According to one report, those meeting in the Oval Office with the US president “ganged up” on the house speaker to allow more money for Ukraine, with Biden telling him that history would “judge him harshly” if he did not act on the issue. Meanwhile, Johnson said his first priority is securing the US-Mexico border.
US President Joe Biden summoned four congressional leaders on Tuesday in an effort to avoid a government shutdown that is predicted to occur on March 8, including: Vice President Kamala Harris, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Speaker Mike Johnson. US legislators must come up with a spending plan that both sides of the aisle can agree on, in order to avoid the shutdown.
At the beginning of the year, the short-term continuing resolution (CR) established a phased, two-step deadline to fund the government, which extended funding through March 1 for about 20% of the federal government that is responsible for military construction, as well as the departments of veterans affairs, agriculture, housing and urban development, transportation and energy. The remaining 80% of the government is funded until March 8.
Aquiles Larrea, the CEO of Larrea Wealth Management, spoke to Sputnik’s The Final Countdown on Tuesday, and sounded hopeful congressional leaders still have enough time to avoid a shutdown, but stressed that time is slipping away.
“I think that the appearance of having to try to do something, getting something done with the congressional leadership is very important at this point, especially since we've gone past a few stopgap measures at this point. But I think, we're not going to have any choice but to put another one in there unless we can get people to agree overnight,” said Larrea.
“Let's just say, in a perfect world, that the Congress agrees overnight, the Senate has to look over the bill over the weekend and hopefully before the March 8th deadline comes to some accord. That way they can get it to the president, but that time is quickly slipping away. So, something the president has probably taken it upon himself, whether it's appearance, whether it be true, whether it be magic to come out and say, 'guys, let's do something, let's figure this out, we have to agree on something,’” he continued. “The only wild card in the bunch right now is the caucus within the House Republican Party.”
Sputnik’s Angie Wong commented on what she views as political posturing by the four congressional leaders and Biden, noting that the US president plans to go to the southern border ahead of the potential shutdown. Former President Donald Trump will also visit the border on Thursday. US Democrats have been fighting for more money to fund Ukraine and Israel, while Republicans have been working to send money to the US-Mexico border, because they believe that will help secure it.
Wong then asked Larrea why Biden had not issued an executive order to close the US-Mexico border.
“I think he's trying to give Congress a fair chance to come up with some solutions because just the president invoking an executive order seems more tyrannical than anything. You know, 'oh, this guy, he just came in, he did this,'. I think it gives plenty to chew on opponents to say, 'well, he had to do this because it was out of control,' and it won't be a positive thing,” Larrea explained.
“The second thing is that Congress can get together, there's plenty of time. It's running out. Yes, it's starting to run out, but there's still plenty of time. And Congress has been notoriously efficient when it wants to be, they can come up with a solution overnight as well, if they really wanted to,” he continued.
“That would appease both sides. But we are in an election year, there's a lot of posturing going on. There's a lot of [much ado] about nothing that would benefit either side, and that's what I feel we, as constituents, we as the American people, American citizens are caught in the middle. And it's not a fun place to be, but it is the reality of the situation.”
But according to Larrea, the issue for American voters is not about the standstill between two political parties—the issue is the economy.
“I think that people are more concerned with economics right now. We've seen inflation rise up so quickly in a short span of time, but now coming down rather quickly. And nobody's talking about that, we're starting to see home rates going down, car loan rates going down. Even the supermarket pricing is starting to go down. We saw an uptick in January. But, speaking economically, we saw an uptick in January. But what people forget is that every January, corporations set new pricing,” Larrea explained.
"I think that the voters are quite apathetic to what's going on right now in Congress, but they would love to see an agreement hammered out. I think it's confusing to some as to why. But, it makes sense,” he continued.
“We're in an election year, we are seeing two sides that are not doing any push and pull at this moment, and that bodes for a shutdown. That's the reality of it right now. Who benefits each side will argue it's the other side's fault. But then, you put these talking heads together and much ado continues. But I also think the conversation needs to continue. The conversation is important, that they are actually making a concerted effort, but if they don't make that effort, it would be substantially worse.”
According to Wong, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) has said that a full year of continuing resolutions (CRs) would be the worst option. She adds that the result of such an event would be like a “free fall” with taxpayer money and that, unfortunately, a “lot of congressional members don’t mind that”.
She then asked Larrea if any seats in Congress might be flipped so that the current issue of a stalemate in Congress does not continue.
“You bring up a very interesting point of congressional seats. It’s more on the Republican side than on the Democrat side. Is this going to cause the caucus to receive more members at this point? That's a very interesting and valid point, but we don't know. And then the same thing could happen with the Democratic side where the moderate has pretty much ruled the day there. But, is it going to turn into a more liberal membership in Congress because of the lack of action?” Larrea explained.
“You know, when things don't get done, voters get fed up and they vote for somebody else. They toss out incumbents. So, it's going to be very interesting to see how these elections go. I think we have no choice. I don't think we're going to go a year, in my opinion,” he continued.
“I think we have to continue doing what we're doing, and all of us will be talking about this every few months or so. And I think Congress is perfectly happy to do that right now. The president may not like it, but for them, they're like, 'you know what? We are not in the business of pleasing the president.'”
US Republican lawmakers are reportedly preparing for a federal shutdown, even if the shut down is “just for a few days”, according to one unnamed lawmaker. Though, US House Speaker Mike Johnson was quoted last week saying that the House would meet its deadlines.
The US House of Representatives suspended legislative business until February 28 after Johnson said lawmakers would not hold a vote on a $95 billion spending bill that was passed by the US Senate. The bill included money for Ukraine, but did not include money for the US-Mexico border. A bipartisan group of US House lawmakers then unveiled a $66.32 billion spending bill that includes money for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and border security measures. A majority of that bill would go towards Ukraine.
