“Call their bluff”: Trump, Vance urge GOP lawmakers to vote down emergency government funding bill

President-elect Donald Trump is urging members of his party to vote down a resolution that would fund the federal government into March. 

In a joint statement with Vice President-elect JD Vance shared by Vance on social media, the incoming executives said that Republican legislators should “call [the] bluff” of congressional Democrats and push for a new resolution that doesn’t include spending they see as wasteful. 

“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on [President Joe] Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?” they shared. “Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.

The debt ceiling is an approved amount that the U.S. Treasury can borrow to pay its debts. The statement called Congressional Republicans “inept” for allowing the federal government to get to the brink of its borrowing limits. Vance and Trump also argued that the bill negotiated by congressional leaders would give too much to Trump’s ever-growing list of enemies. 

“Congress is considering a spending bill that would give sweetheart provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney. The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the corrupt January 6 committee—which accomplished nothing for the American people and hid security failures that happened that day,” they wrote. 

The joint statement came after Trump admin figure Elon Musk spent the day Wednesday raging against the spending bill on social media. Trump and Vance said that anything less than a new resolution and a raised debt ceiling would amount to “a betrayal of our country” and encouraged Republicans to “GET SMART and TOUGH.”

“THIS CHAOS WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IF WE HAD A REAL PRESIDENT,” they wrote in closing. “WE WILL IN 32 DAYS!”