Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) on Friday morning “dragged” President-elect Trump into a debate over the spending bill amid the threat of a government shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said. vehemently criticized.
“This is an example of Chairman Johnson's failure of leadership,” Spartz told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo. “Chairman Johnson dragged President Trump into this circus.”
“He completely mishandled it. He didn't work with the Republicans,” he added.
Her criticism comes after President Trump pushed for an extension or repeal of the debt ceiling in order to gain input into the original bipartisan spending bill and gain his approval of the proposal. A second bill included raising the debt ceiling, but ultimately failed.
Mr. Spartz was one of 38 House Republicans who voted against Mr. Trump's policies.
“Chairman Johnson, for the most part, doesn't talk to House Republicans,” she said in an interview Friday. “It's almost disrespectful for a member of Congress to introduce a 1,500-page bill at the last moment and expect everyone to vote on it.” [a certain way]. ”
The latest spending bill would include three separate bills for allocating government funding, disaster relief and agricultural support. Notably, this version does not include President Trump's call to raise the debt ceiling.
The Indiana Republican announced earlier this month that he would no longer sit on committees or caucus with Republican leaders and instead focus his time on furthering his mission to cut government spending.
She also praised the president-elect's newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). An advisory committee led by tech billionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy outlined a goal to shrink the size of government and cut spending by $2 trillion.
Musk also got involved in the spending fight, flooding his social platform X with misinformation about a stopgap bill that would fund the government through March. He is credited with helping pass the original emergency bill, along with other Trump allies.
Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on the latest bill on Friday, as government funding is set to expire at midnight.
