President-elect Trump has pushed through a federal spending bill at the urging of billionaire Elon Musk, who bankrolled Trump’s re-election campaign and plans to help cut government spending and oversee regulation in the new administration. , Congress is leaning toward a government shutdown. That would have kept the government open for the next several months.
The episode drew sharp criticism from Democrats and left many wondering whether Musk was really responsible.
“The US Congress reached an agreement this week to fund the government, which Elon Musk, who has become $200 billion richer since Trump was elected, opposed. Do Republicans owe a debt to the American people? ? Or President Musk? This is an oligarchy at work.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (R-Vt.) posted on social media late Wednesday.
In an appearance on MSNBC Wednesday night, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) called Musk “basically a shadow president.”
These kinds of comments continued on Thursday, with Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) writing:resident. They want a government shutdown that will harm millions of Americans. This is simply insane,” wrote Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.).
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich echoed this sentiment in an opinion piece for Common Dreams published Thursday, saying, “If this is not an oligarchy, I don’t know what is. Because that’s what the billionaire shadow president wants.”
(Related article: If Musk blocking major spending bills isn’t an oligarchy, I don’t know what is.)
President Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance poured cold water on the spending bill in a joint statement Wednesday afternoon, claiming it contained a “democratic gift.” President Trump’s directive came after Musk spent much of Wednesday expressing opposition to spending measures on his platform, Platform X. In total, Musk posted more than 150 posts calling on Republican lawmakers to withdraw from the spending bill, according to the New York Times.
The bipartisan spending package announced by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on Tuesday will fund the government at current levels through March 14, plus about $100 billion in disaster relief and money for farmers. will provide $10 billion in economic relief.
In a statement condemning the bill, Mr. Vance and Mr. Trump also brought to discussion the thorny issue of the national debt, which currently exceeds $36 trillion, and called for raising the debt ceiling. Trump also called for the debt ceiling to be completely lifted, NBC News reported Thursday.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said of the debt ceiling call: “Haha! Trump wants to raise the debt ceiling for one reason and one reason only– So that they can borrow shitty money to pay for the big new tax cuts.” In other words, it’s about imposing even more debt on ordinary Americans so that the wealthy can get even richer. . ”
