Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) on Thursday took aim at billionaire Elon Musk for derailing the end-of-year spending deal.
“Let’s put this into context. This was a bipartisan, agreed upon deal to move forward and keep the government open until March,” Lee said on CNN.
“It is really very clear to me that a non-elected billionaire, Elon Musk, has weighed in now and has put forth a message on Twitter, from his phone, that it’s okay to shut the government down and to disregard the bipartisan deal,” she said, adding that allowing a billionaire like Musk to “run our government really has grave consequences on the American people.”
On Thursday night, the House rejected Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) plan B spending bill after the first one was met with scrutiny from Musk and President-elect Trump. Allies of Trump quickly followed suit, criticizing the continuing resolution, which led to Johnson’s plan B bill.
Musk, who’s set to co-lead the newly made Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, on Wednesday flooded his social platform X with misinformation about Congress’s deal, calling on Republicans to reject the stopgap bill.
Just hours after the continuing resolution was unveiled Tuesday night, Musk argued the deal “should not pass,” launched a series of posts and reposts, and occasionally spread incorrect information over lawmaker pay raises to the cost of a football stadium in Washington, D.C.
Trump on Wednesday also demanded that a debt ceiling be paired with the stopgap bill, issuing a joint statement with Vice President-elect Vance saying that while the party wants disaster aid and support for farmers — issues tackled in the temporary funding plan — he wants Congress to pass a “streamlined spending bill” that doesn’t give Democrats “everything they want” and has “an increase in the debt ceiling.”
However, Trump’s demand was met with raised eyebrows from lawmakers on both sides as many questioned the president-elect’s request.
