Multibillionaire Elon Musk will not be elected to workplace, but it surely hasn’t stopped him from main Republican opposition to the bipartisan spending invoice meant to fund the federal government earlier than a potential shutdown. Nevertheless it gained’t be Musk, his social media military, or Home Republicans who pay the most important worth.
Musk whipped up opposition to the invoice amongst conservative Republicans with dozens of tweets on X, which he has become a misinformation machine.
Musk’s posts on the laws have been full of lies. He claimed that the invoice contained a 40% pay enhance for Congress, would stop Republicans from investigating the Jan. 6 committee, would fund a bioweapons lab, and would pay for a brand new stadium for the NFL’s Washington Commanders. Each single considered one of Musk’s allegations was false and with out benefit.
However regardless of the underlying falsehoods from the man who bankrolled tons of of hundreds of thousands for Trump’s election, Speaker Mike Johnson pulled the invoice after Donald Trump adopted Musk’s lead and opposed the laws.
Trump backed a brand new, pared down spending invoice that finally didn’t move on Thursday, resulting in humiliation for Republicans who are actually in disarray regardless of a majority.
The brand new invoice created on the behest of the richest man on this planet (Musk is value over $439 billion) is notable for the cuts it makes to funding and applications meant to assist hundreds of thousands of working-class Individuals.
Maybe most startling is the choice by Republican lawmakers to scrap a bipartisan provision that prolonged funding for the Gabriella Miller Youngsters First Analysis Program. This system, created in reminiscence of a 10-year-old woman who died from a mind tumor, funds analysis on therapy for pediatric most cancers.
Nancy Goodman, founder and government director of Youngsters v. Most cancers instructed The Bulwark, “How can it be that our society is not thinking about the most vulnerable children and doing everything they can to help them? How can we cut this out in the name of efficiency? How does that make sense?”
The Musk-focused invoice additionally cuts funding meant to increase the World Commerce Middle Well being Program, which assists 9/11 first responders and survivors.
“’Never forget’ aren’t just words in New York. They’re a promise. One the @HouseGOP broke tonight when they cut health care for 9/11 first responders from the government funding bill,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote. “Get back into the Capitol and do. Your. Job.”
The revised invoice additionally reduce a number of different provisions that have been within the first invoice, together with a program for analysis on Down syndrome, funding for detection of breast and cervical most cancers, funds for analysis on sickle cell illness, and provisions meant to fight deepfake porn.
The laws additionally eliminated funding to fight opioid abuse and regulation meant to place guardrails on the pharmacy profit supervisor business—giving a win to corporations like UnitedHealth Group.
The revised invoice did embrace a provision to lift the federal debt restrict, one thing that hasn’t been carried out underneath Democratic presidents however would give Trump extra energy to move his agenda as soon as he’s sworn in.
Democrats have railed in opposition to your complete messy course of and mocked Trump and Johnson for bending to the whims of “President Elon Musk.”
Finally, the wealthiest man on this planet—by a large margin—instructed the Republican Occasion what to do, and in response the social gathering made cuts that can have an effect on hundreds of thousands of people that won’t ever have the wealth and affect of Musk.
Home Republican management is about to suggest a 3rd invoice on Friday to keep away from a authorities shutdown at midnight. Johnson has mentioned he has a plan C and a vote will occur Friday morning, however with Musk watching, the result is anybody’s guess.
