Biden admin stares at an imminent ‘shutdown’

A US government "Shutdown Showdown" seems imminent as hardliner GoP members have not shown an inclination to support the last ditch 'New Deal' from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's short-term stopgap measures to prevent government closure in two weeks.

As the Democrats and Republicans wrestle over their demands for spending cuts and the house is headed towards a potential "shutdown" in less than two weeks, McCarthy has upended two key factions of House Republicans, who have crafted a short-term, stopgap measure called a continuing resolution that would temporarily fund the government through October 31, USA Today reported.

The Bill, sponsored by members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and the more moderate Main Street Caucus, seeks to impose an eight per cent spending cut on federal agencies as a compromise formula for democrats to endorse, which excludes national defence budget, the Department of Veterans Affairs and amounts designated for disaster relief.

The ‘Stopgap Continuing Resolution’, however, includes border security provisions that have been on the conservative wish lists for a long time as the Republicans engaged the Democrats in a spending fight that could jeopardise much of President Joe Biden's social welfare schemes on education, green technologies and lowering costs of health care, that has gone down well with the democrats voting base.