It looks like the U.S. government will remain open for business.

Tonight, 196 Democrats voted with 170 Republicans in the House to pass a government funding bill and avoid a shutdown.

The Senate is expected to pass the bill later this evening.

But the fact that this was even in question is a testament to the utter chaos of the Republican

party.

I mean, after all, at the start of the week, this outcome seemed like a given.

The government would stay open.

Democrats and Republicans had hammered out a bipartisan deal to keep the government funded

into next year.

But then on Wednesday, the richest man in the world,

Elon Musk, decided to blow it all up by demanding that Republicans kill the bipartisan

agreement, calling it a horrible bill. And then Donald Trump and J.D. Vance followed suit,

saying that they too opposed the agreement that had been negotiated and issued a significant

new demand at the 11th hour. Trump and Vance demanded that Republicans refused to support any

bill that did not increase the debt limit because Trump had now decided that he did not want

to have to be responsible for raising it on his watch.

So that was Trump's red line.

That was the reason why he absolutely could not support

the original agreement.

The reason much of this country was holding its breath

and worried that the federal government might shut down

right at the peak of the holiday travel season

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