But no “shutdown” in the USA

US parliament

But no “shutdown” in the USA – transitional budget decided

Once again, a standstill of government transactions threatened because of a budget dispute in the USA. But at the last minute there is a solution in parliament – thanks to the voices of a few Democrats.

The US parliament has decided on a transitional budget and thus averted a threatening standstill of the government transactions. After the House of Representatives, a majority in the Senate also voted for a budget design of the Republicans, which takes effect until the end of the financial year at the end of September. Several democratic senators reluctantly helped the draft with their voices about the decisive formal hurdle – despite their resistance to the course of the Republican President Donald Trump.

The solution, as is often the case with budget negotiations in the USA, came about at the last minute. Without the vote, the so-called shutdown mode would have occurred on Saturday night: a payment stop of all federal expenses in the US administration. As a result, state institutions would have had to partially hire their work and many state employees would not have received any salary for the time being. This does not happen. Trump still has to sign the law to put it into force. This is considered a formal.

The adoption of the budget regularly leads to violent political tits in the United States. The parliament often only agrees on a draft at the very last moment and often moves from one transitional budget to the next. Disputes on various topics are regularly carried out by the budget.

It was also unclear this time whether the Democrats would block the draft – in protest against Trump’s radical course since he took office. The Republicans have a majority in the 100-member Senate with 53 seats. However, at least 60 senators in the chamber have to agree to bring most of the draft laws to vote at all – here too.

Ten democrats helped the draft budget, accompanied by internal controversy, with their voices about this threshold, while a Republican senator was right. A simple majority finally submitted in the final vote.

The highest democrat in the Senate, minority leader Chuck Schumer, had given up and argued shortly before the vote that a “shutdown” of the government would only play Trump’s hands. The Republican and his confidant, the Tech billionaire Elon Musk, wanted to create a “shutdown” to donate further chaos and distract them from their agenda, Schumer wrote in a guest contribution for the “New York Times” on the eve of the vote. A standstill of government transactions would harm families in the country.

Shortly before, Schumer had announced his faction of his faction against the draft budget of the Republicans. His zigzag course and row back brought him violent criticism in his own party.

Some Democrats had just seen a blockade of the household as a means of resistance to Trump’s course and his clear cut in the government. A “shutdown” of government transactions, which would have hit many already battered federal employees and ultimately also the normal citizens, is not very popular among the population. Therefore, other democrats spoke out to allow government transactions to be stopped by a household block.

The US President currently has the federal government’s employees who are not in line and is rigorously rebuilding the state apparatus: Trump has largely stopped development aid and wants to completely abolish the Ministry of Education in the federal government. This is only part of many controversial interior and foreign policy decisions of his first weeks in office. The resistance of the Democratic Party against Trump’s politics has so far been rather helpless. They have their say with dramatic warnings, but have not yet found a political path to oppose Trump. So far, there has been resistance primarily in court.