Musk, Ramaswamy And Republican Officials Urge House GOP To Kill Johnson's Federal Funding Bill
(Left-center) U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks to
reporters. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) / (R-top) Businessman
Vivek Ramaswamy, Co-Chair of the newly announced Department of
Government Efficiency (DOGE). (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) /
(R-middle) Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Co-Chair of the newly announced
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). (Photo by Anna
Moneymaker/Getty Images) / (R-bottom) U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) arrives
for the Senate Republican leadership elections at the U.S. Capitol.
The new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leaders in Trump’s
incoming administration, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, blasted House
GOP leadership on Wednesday, actively urging Republicans to kill a
controversial stopgap measure to prevent a government shutdown.
“This bill should not pass,” Musk posted on his X platform.
“Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?” Musk continued, referencing an image showing the legislative text.
Ramaswamy also chimed in and explained why the new measure is unfavorable in his eyes.
“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 posted on X.
“Congress has known about this deadline since they created it in late
September. There’s no reason why this couldn’t have gone through the
standard process, instead of being rushed to a vote right before
Congressmen want to go home for the holidays. The urgency is 100%
manufactured.”
Meanwhile, Johnson (R-La.) suggests that the two DOGE leaders should
take into account his difficult predicament, even though both Musk and
Ramaswamy chairs have widely criticized the spending patch that
leadership revealed on Tuesday night.
“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 said on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday regarding the controversial new measure.
“Vivek and I talked last night about almost midnight, and he said,
‘Look, I get it. We understand you’re in an impossible position.
Everybody knows that,’” Johnson claimed.
The government will shut down on Friday night unless congressional
leaders act to stop a lapse. The new resolution on Tuesday would provide
government funding through March 14th, 2025.
However, the 1,547-page continuing resolution (CR) is reportedly
jam-packed with a variety of add-ons, including $100 billion for
disaster relief, a one-year extension of the farm bill, up to $2 billion
for the reconstruction of Maryland’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which
collapsed earlier this year after a cargo ship collided with it, and $10
billion for farmer assistance.
Additionally, Breitbart News reported that “The (CR)
released Tuesday night — negotiated on the GOP side by Johnson —
includes tens of billions of dollars in waste and includes funding for
controversial items, including a pay raise for members of Congress as
well as a one-year extension of the State Department’s Global Engagement
Center (GEC), which funds organizations that censor conservative
media.”
GOP officials continued to post their thoughts on the new CR.
I had hoped to see @SpeakerJohnson grow a spine, but this bill full of pork shows he is a weak, weak man.
The
debt will continue to grow. Ultimately the dollar will fail.
Democrats are clueless and Big Gov Republicans are complicit.
.@SpeakerJohnson
personally killed a bipartisan, bicameral expansion + spending cap RECA
deal. It was him alone. BUT he’s willing to spend BILLIONS on Ukraine
and foreign wars and every pork barrel project known to man https://t.co/7QD7orzVUI
‘Twas three days before the gov't shutdown And I’m at my desk On page 54 of this 1,547 page mess. The CR is garbage Chocked full of carnage. I’ll be a hard no I won’t stoop that low.
The
first 9 pages of this Continuing Resolution are all we need to keep the
government open; the other 1,500+ pages are a handbook on how the
government plans to waste your tax dollars for a bit.
People call me "NostraThomas" for accurately predicting @SpeakerJohnson would use the Christmas recess to force a massive spending bill through Congress.
After claiming he would not, Johnson is embracing a D.C. tradition that's nearly as old as decorating Christmas trees. pic.twitter.com/TRd1ZiCXtc
Republicans are openly opposing Johnson’s efforts, accusing him of trying to push the bill through before the 118th Congress ends and lawmakers go home for the holidays.
The measure has angered a slew of Republicans, especially Kentucky
Senator Rand Paul and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who argue that it
should have been a clean CR and that many of the additional provisions
should be discussed separately.
Legislators have also complained that they were not given enough time to read the lengthy document.
Johnson has been courting Musk and Ramaswamy since the 2024 election.
Earlier this month, he invited them to the U.S. Capitol for talks with
senators, he mingled with them both at Mar-a-Lago, and again during one
of President-elect Donald Trump’s UFC appearances.
“Remember, guys, we still have just a razor-thin margin of Republicans,” Johnson continued on “Fox & Friends.”
“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.’”
“We got to get this done because here’s the key: By doing this, we
are clearing the decks, and we are setting up for Trump to come in
roaring back with [the] America First agenda,” Johnson added.
At the beginning of next year, Congress will have a busy schedule as
it must balance Trump’s plans with the unfinished business of federal
funding for fiscal year 2025 before moving on to fiscal year 2026, which
is due on October 1st, 2025.
Soon after the news broke, Trump logged on to his Truth Social platform and explained his thoughts on the matter.
“Congress is considering a spending bill that would give sweetheart
provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney. 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. Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do
it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling
now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our
administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a
streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the
Democrats everything they want. Republicans want to support our farmers,
pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025.
The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT
DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling.
Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” Trump stated.
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