- Criticism from President-elect Trump and Elon Musk sunk a bipartisan bill to keep the government open, and a revised version meant to address their complaints lost House support—setting the stage for a shutdown.
If anyone on Capitol Hill thought they would have a relaxing wind down to Christmas, they can think again. Following fierce criticism from President-elect Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson scrapped a bipartisan bill that would have provided three months of federal funding to keep the government open.
Then, after Republican leaders slimmed down the 1,500-page bill to 116 pages—removing the spending “pork” that drew Musk and Trump’s ire—the reduced package, which added a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling demanded by Trump, was rejected, with 38 Republicans joining Democrats to vote it down.
The result is that America is now facing at least a partial government shutdown as of midnight on Friday, when current funding lapses.
Musk began harshly criticizing the original spending bill—whose writing was led by House Speaker Johnson—on Wednesday, when he posted on X: “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!”
Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024
He added in a separate post: “Please call your elected representatives right away to tell them how you feel! They are trying to get this passed today while no one is paying attention.”
Despite assertions from Johnson that Musk had been reassured on the particulars of the bill, the Tesla CEO continued to criticize it and promptly lauded the politicians who came out against it.
Meanwhile, despite Johnson’s loyal support of Trump—the president-elect hosted Johnson on election night and was recently seen at a football game with him—both Trump and Vice President–elect JD Vance changed their tune regarding the original bill.
A statement from the duo Vance posted to X—the site owned by their entrepreneur friend Musk—reads: “The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the corrupt January 6 committee—which accomplished nothing for the American people and hid security failures that happened that day.
“This bill would also give Congress a pay increase while many Americans are struggling this Christmas.”
Second try
With only two days before a shutdown, Johnson and other House Republicans rewrote the bill to address Trump’s—and Musk’s—concerns.
Trump was pleased with the reworked proposal, which included $100 billion in disaster aid, including for hurricane-hit states, and a debt ceiling suspension through January 2027.
“SUCCESS in Washington!” he posted on Truth Social. “Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal.”
But Democrats were not convinced by the new bill, which stripped out many of the compromises—and spending—that earned the original its bipartisan support.
The two-year suspension of the debt ceiling—which Republicans had used against President Biden—also made it almost impossible for the Democrats to support.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the new bill “laughable” and said Democrats were going to stay with the original deal they had made with Johnson: “It’s not a serious proposal.”
Inside a closed-door caucus meeting of Democrats, the members were heard chanting, “Hell, no!”
Johnson’s second try did not convince all Republicans either, as 38 joined the all-but-three Democrats who voted against it. It lost, 174–235.
“We will regroup, and we will come up with another solution,” Johnson said after the vote failed. “So stay tuned.”
Who’s calling the shots?
While elected officials like Trump and Vance, as well as Trump’s DOGE co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy came out against the bill, politicians are beginning to question just how far the richest man in the world’s influence will go.
Bernie Sanders, the U.S. senator for Vermont, took to X yesterday to question how far Musk’s influence would reach in matters of the democratically elected Congress.
“Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is threatening to unseat elected officials if they do not follow his orders to shut down the government during the holidays,” Sanders wrote. “Are we still a democracy or have we already moved to oligarchy and authoritarianism?”
The US Congress this week came to an agreement to fund our government.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 19, 2024
Elon Musk, who became $200 BILLION richer since Trump was elected, objected.
Are Republicans beholden to the American people? Or President Musk?
This is oligarchy at work.
For what it’s worth, Trump—who has the mandate of a majority of voters—doesn’t seem all that concerned about the shutdown of government in the weeks before his own inauguration.
Indeed, he posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social, Thursday night: “Our country is far better off closing up for a period of time than it is agreeing to the things that the Democrats want to force upon us.”
He added: “Put ‘America first,’ and go for the victory, even if it means shutting the government down for a period of time. We had an overwhelming victory just four weeks ago, and we’re not going to let the Democrats forget it so quickly!”
Musk is trying to squarely blame Democrats for the potential shutdown instead of the Republicans who voted against the bill.
He posted on X: “Objectively, the vast majority of Republican House members voted for the spending bill, but only 2 Democrats did. Therefore, if the government shuts down, it is obviously the fault of [House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries] and the Democratic Party. Plain & simple.”
