Washington, 20 Dec

The House rejected President-elect Donald Trump's new plan on Thursday to fund federal operations and suspend the debt ceiling a day before a government shutdown, as Democrats refused to accommodate his sudden demands and the quick fix cobbled together by Republican leaders.

In a hastily-convened evening vote punctuated by angry outbursts over the self-made crisis, the lawmakers failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for passage -- but House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared determined to try again before Friday's midnight deadline.

"We are going to do the right thing here," Johnson said ahead of the vote. But he did not even get a majority, with the bill failing 174-235.

The outcome proved a massive setback for Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, who rampaged against Johnson's bipartisan compromise, which Republicans and Democrats had reached earlier to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown.

It provides a preview of the turbulence ahead when Trump returns to the White House with Republican control of the House and Senate. During his first term, Trump led Republicans into the longest government shutdown in history during the 2018 Christmas season and interrupted the holidays in 2020 by tanking a bipartisan Covid-relief bill and forcing a do-over.

Hours earlier, Trump announced "SUCCESS in Washington!" in coming up with the new package which would keep government running for three more months, add USD 100.4 billion in disaster assistance including for hurricane-hit states, and allow more borrowing through 30 January, 2027.

But Republicans, who had spent 24 hours largely negotiating with themselves to come up with the new plan, ran into a wall of resistance from Democrats, who were in no hurry to appease demands from Trump -- or his billionaire ally Musk.

The new proposal whittled the 1,500-page bill to 116 pages and dropped a number of add-ons -- notably, the first pay raise for lawmakers in more than a decade, which could have allowed as much as a 3.8-per cent bump. That drew particular scorn as Musk turned his social media army against the bill. -PTI