Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy denounced a short-term funding bill aimed at preventing a government shutdown, accusing it of excessive spending and pork-barrel politics. Despite their criticism, Congressional leaders, including Representative Steve Scalise, maintain that the measure is necessary to avert a shutdown and are urging its passage.
“This bill should not pass,” Musk bluntly posted on his X platform, later pondering “Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?” in reference to a photo of the legislative text.“It’s full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways & pork barrel politics. If Congress wants to get serious about government efficiency, they should VOTE NO,” Ramaswamy added on X.
Despite the Department of Government Efficiency co-chairs’ criticisms of the spending patch, which leadership unveiled Tuesday evening, Johnson insists the two moguls understand his predicament.“I was communicating with Elon last night. Elon and Vivek and I are on a text chain together, and I was explaining to them the background of this,” Johnson recounted on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday of his talks with the co-chairs of DOGE, which is not a governmental entity.
Johnson is facing an open revolt from Republicans, who unlike Musk and Ramaswamy have blamed the House speaker for trying to ram through the bill before the 118th Congress concludes and lawmakers head home for the holidays. “So, any bill has to have Democrat votes. They understand the situation. They said, it’s not directed to you, Mr. Speaker, but we don’t like the spending.”Since the 2024 election, Johnson has courted Musk and Ramaswamy, rubbing elbows with them at Mar-a-Lago and one of President-elect Donald Trump’s UFC outings.Democrats control both the Senate and the White House.
“Right now, Democrats still control and that’s the problem. So, we have to get this thing done so we don’t have the shutdown, so we get the short-term funding measure, and we get to March where we can put our fingerprints on the spending,” Johnson went on.
Government Shutdown Spending Bill Congress Elon Musk Vivek Ramaswamy
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