Congressional Democrats on Friday continued to target billionaire Elon Musk and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for forcing a last-minute emergency response to prevent a government shutdown just before the winter holidays.
“We can’t let Elon Musk run our government, so we’re prepared to stay here until Christmas,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a statement Friday. said. “Simply put, unelected billionaires cannibalize childhood cancer research so they can get tax breaks, or we can’t control policies that help the U.S. win against China because it could hurt our profits.” We should not allow it to be destroyed.”
“We have a bipartisan agreement, and we must stick to it. The agreements that have already been agreed to will responsibly fund government and provide much-needed support to communities across America. “It provided critical disaster relief and delivered good bipartisan policy reform,” she added. “The American people do not want chaos and a costly government shutdown just because unelected billionaires want to make decisions. I will work with Republicans and Democrats to , we stand ready to pass a bipartisan agreement negotiated by both sides as soon as possible.”
If Congress doesn’t act by midnight, a government shutdown could begin overnight, according to The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein, and the White House Office of Management and Budget has warned federal agencies of the possibility. He is warning people to be prepared for this.
After Musk and Vivek Ramaswami, the two billionaires President Trump named to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), announced their opposition to the initial bipartisan agreement on Wednesday, the president-elect also Progressive critics quickly followed suit, slamming Musk. , the world’s richest man, the “shadow president,” was born one month before the inauguration.
Faced with that opposition and President Trump’s surprise request to continue the resolution, which also raises the nation’s debt ceiling, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) responded to the request Thursday night. They voted on a bill to fund the government for three years. However, it was rejected by all but 38 Republicans and two Democrats.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, blasted Musk on her social media platform X on Thursday night, saying, “Congress has bowed to an unreachable billionaire.” “It must not be done,” he insisted.
After voting against the so-called American Rescue Act (HR 10515) on Thursday, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said in a statement: “We have reached an agreement. We negotiated a continuing resolution on a bipartisan basis. But then the Republican billionaire bosses came to an agreement.” -Trump and Musk were involved and the Republicans showed us *exactly* who they were working for. ”
“In the last 48 hours, Republicans have shown once again that their agenda is big money, corporate billionaires, a political agenda,” she continued. “To meet the expectations of their bosses, they are sacrificing vulnerable Americans, sacrificing health care for workers, research for their children, affordable prescription drugs for seniors, and more.”
“And they are laying the groundwork for the 119th Congress to make the wealthy even richer through tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy,” Ramirez warned. “If Republicans want to make the rich richer, the poor poorer, and the sick sicker, they’re going to have to pass this continuing resolution without me. I’m not beholden to billionaires. I voted no.”
With less than 12 hours until the government shutdown, Senate Democrats are shifting the blame to Johnson, who is moving to Plan C. That means three separate votes on “a short-term funding bill, recent natural disaster funding, and a one-year farm bill.” An extension with aid to farmers,” Politicore reported on Friday.
According to the outlet:
The new plan will test his ability to discuss the meeting. Lawmakers believe Johnson is trying to push the proposal through the Rules Committee and pass it in the normal order, requiring only a simple majority on the House floor. Rep. Ralph Norman (RS.C.), a member of the committee, said he supports the plan. That means it should have enough support to get out of committee.
But then things get more complicated. Johnson would need near-unanimousity in the chamber to bring the rules to a floor debate, known as a vote for the rules. Democrats typically do not vote in favor of the rules and are loath to work with Republicans on relief efforts after the party pulled out of a bipartisan funding deal earlier this week.
Outgoing Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Friday: “Republicans have a majority in the House and should be able to pass anything they want. If they want our votes, they have to come to the table. We have to get there and negotiate.” “That happened, we had a bipartisan deal, and then they threw it out because of a billionaire’s tweet. It’s insane.”
The threat of a government shutdown comes as Republicans prepare to take control of both the House and Senate as well as the White House next year.
Reporting on Friday’s Republican leadership meeting, Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman said the First Settlement would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion and reduce debt by $2.5 trillion. He said a slide of a debt ceiling agreement was shown promising. Net mandatory expenditure in the adjustment process. ”
Federal law prohibits the use of the settlement process to change Social Security, but the advocacy group Social Security Works said in response to Sherman that “the only way to cut $2.5 trillion in spending is… “Republicans want to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or both.” To steal our profits for their billionaire tax cuts. ”
