Spending Revolt Is Ominous for GOP

Party tensions present challenges for tackling tax and spending priorities

- RICHARD RUBIN

The DOGE caught the CR, and the road only gets bumpier from here.

The latest episode of House Republicans' fiscal-policy psychodrama featured a familiar problem-how to unite a fractious and slim majority around a continuing resolution, or CR, to keep the government open. That was tough enough before Elon Musk, co-head of President-elect Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, spurred Republicans to chuck a bipartisan agreement that included a series of unrelated deals.

The denouement was familiar, too. After scrapping the 1,500-plus page bipartisan bill at Musk's urging, Republicans tried a Trump-blessed version. That failed, too. The ultimate bill to keep the government open and provide aid to farmers and disaster victims relied on Democratic votes and it excluded Trump's main demand-an increase in the debt ceiling that would keep that hot potato out of his lap next year. Trump and Musk showed their power to tear apart legislation but didn't demonstrate a way to put it back together.

It is an ominous sign for next year's all-Republican government, when the GOP will try to push Trump's border, energy, defense, tax and spending priorities into law through narrow majorities while keeping the government open and legally able to borrow.

There can be healthy tension inside a governing coalition. But fractures among Republicans on spending and tactics are tough to paper over, especially with, at best, a 220-215 majority in the House and a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

"We share a lot of things in common as a party-the border, the economy, inflationand this is a time that our family's having some good discussion on how we go forward," Rep. Nick LaLota (R., N.Y.) said.