TLDR:

• Representatives were only given a few hours to read the bill. Although it was a very small bill compared to the previous one, it's still 116 pages that need to be analyzed line by line and digested. Then a tough decision has to be made, and decisions can take time.

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• Fiscal conservatives couldn't get behind eliminating the debt ceiling for two whole years. McCarthy's political career ended because he worked with Democrats to just raise the debt ceiling. Now Trump is asking to do away with it entirely for a fairly long period of time that would cover the rest of Biden's term as well as half of his own presidency. Traditional Reagan conservatives and budget hawk types in the Freedom Caucus are diametrically opposed to this kind of permissiveness when it comes to government spending.

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• Trump's bill would have ended the debt ceiling crisis for the remainder of this congressional term. While that might sound like a good thing to us, the debt ceiling gives each member of congress a ton of leverage considering how slim the majority is right now. A quick solution would undermine a key bargaining chip that representatives have been using to advance their own agenda and personality.

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• Democrats are not going to vote for the "Trump spending bill" under any circumstances, especially when it would basically free up a Republican Congress for the next two years under a Republican president.

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• Individual Democrats and some Republicans had more populist critiques of the bill, arguing that it would have cut funds for childhood cancer research among other things while guaranteeing subsidies for pharmaceutical companies and big pharma.

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So What Now?

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As an armchair Congressman myself, I'd introduce a series of tiny, extremely specific bills that just address just a few related things each. The first one would be the least controversial expenditures that everyone should be able to get behind. Stuff like air travel for Christmas, national parks, and giving people their paychecks. That way the "worst" parts of a shutdown are mitigated while the rest are hashed out individually over time.

TLDR:

• Representatives were only given a few hours to read the bill. Although it was a very small bill compared to the previous one, it's still 116 pages that need to be analyzed line by line and digested. Then a tough decision has to be made, and decisions can take time.

• Fiscal conservatives couldn't get behind eliminating the debt ceiling for two whole years. McCarthy's political career ended because he worked with Democrats to just raise the debt ceiling. Now Trump is asking to do away with it entirely for a fairly long period of time that would cover the rest of Biden's term as well as half of his own presidency. Traditional Reagan conservatives and budget hawk types in the Freedom Caucus are diametrically opposed to this kind of permissiveness when it comes to government spending.

• Trump's bill would have ended the debt ceiling crisis for the remainder of this congressional term. While that might sound like a good thing to us, the debt ceiling gives each member of congress a ton of leverage considering how slim the majority is right now. A quick solution would undermine a key bargaining chip that representatives have been using to advance their own agenda and personality.

• Democrats are not going to vote for the "Trump spending bill" under any circumstances, especially when it would basically free up a Republican Congress for the next two years under a Republican president.

• Individual Democrats and some Republicans had more populist critiques of the bill, arguing that it would have cut funds for childhood cancer research among other things while guaranteeing subsidies for pharmaceutical companies and big pharma.

So What Now?

As an armchair Congressman myself, I'd introduce a series of tiny, extremely specific bills that just address just a few related things each. The first one would be the least controversial expenditures that everyone should be able to get behind. Stuff like air travel for Christmas, national parks, and giving people their paychecks. That way the "worst" parts of a shutdown are mitigated while the rest are hashed out individually over time.