Musk trades influence on Congress in shutdown drama

A funny thing happened on the way to a bipartisan agreement to fund US government operations and avoid a partial shutdown this week.

Conservatives in Congress, emboldened by tech billionaire Elon Musk, refused.

Republicans tried to regroup Thursday afternoon by proposing a new, slimmed-down package to fund the government. That vote failed, with 38 Republicans voting against it along with a majority of Democrats.

All this political drama is just a taste of the chaos and unpredictability that could be in store under a unified Republican administration in Washington next year.

The man at the center of this week’s drama has no official government title or role. However, Elon Musk has hundreds of billions of dollars, a megaphone on social media, and the ear of not only the President of the United States, but also rank-and-file conservatives in Congress.

On Wednesday morning, the tech mogul turned to Company X, which he bought for $44 billion two years ago, to disparage a compromise that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson reached with Democrats to temporarily fund US government operations until mid-March.

As his reports on the proposed deal reached triple digits, sometimes fueling factually inaccurate accusations from conservative commentators, opposition to the legislation in Congress grew.

And by Wednesday evening, Donald Trump — perhaps feeling the need to address a growing conservative rebellion — publicly said he also opposes the government funding bill.

He said it contained wasteful spending and Democratic priorities, and demanded that Congress take a politically sensitive step to raise — or even lift — the legal limit on newly issued U.S. debt that the U.S. will reach next summer.

Then support for the interim spending bill collapsed, leaving Johnson and his leadership team scrambling to find an alternative way forward. As they did, Musk celebrated by announcing that “the voice of the people has won.”

However, it would be more accurate to say that Musk’s voice won.

Republicans unveiled a new proposal Thursday afternoon that suspended the debt limit for the first two years of Trump’s second term, funded the government through March and included some disaster relief and other measures included in the original funding package.

But Musk’s involvement may not sit well with some lawmakers. House Democrats joked about “President Musk,” while even a few Republicans grumbled publicly.

“World Health Organization?” Pennsylvania Republican Glenn Thompson responded to a question about Musk. – I don’t see him in the cell.

Musk may have been the mastermind, but this latest congressional funding crisis shows what has been — and likely will remain — an ongoing problem for the narrow Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

For two years, House Republicans have struggled to maintain a united front among a party populated, at least in part, by politicians with an active disdain for the government they help run.

Internal disagreements delayed Kevin McCarthy’s election as speaker of the House in January 2022 and led to his ouster — the first in American history — the following year. Johnson ultimately replaced him, but only after weeks of countless leads.

Some Republicans hoped that with Trump’s election, members of their majority, which will be even smaller when the new Congress is sworn in next month, would be more willing to take action to support the new president’s agenda. And some are.

“I think President Trump has pretty much laid out the plan, so I don’t know what the discussions are about,” Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna told reporters after Republican internal meetings Thursday afternoon.

However, this week it became clear that the president-elect can’t always offer the legislature the clear and consistent direction it needs.

His insistence on raising the debt limit, for example, caught many in his own party off guard. And external influences, for example, Musk or others, can introduce additional instability into the process.

Unless Republicans can achieve near-unanimity in the House, they will have to find ways to get Democrats on their side if they want to achieve any legislative success. And that this week has shown (yet again) that necessary political compromises can cause more Republican defections.

Trump’s party will need to govern effectively on its own, but it also may not tolerate being governed by Democrats.

If there is no political balance in the chamber, it will jeopardize Trump’s more ambitious legislative priorities before he even takes office.

Republicans may yet find a way to avoid a prolonged government shutdown through a temporary budget resolution, even if Trump’s first round of pressure has resulted in an embarrassing failure to win enough support within his own party.

For Johnson, however, the damage may already be done. His standing with House Republicans has been eroded — first by Musk and then by Trump — just weeks before he runs for re-election as House speaker.

Only one Republican, Thomas Massey of Kentucky, has said he will not support Johnson’s re-election. Others, including members of Johnson’s own team, were adamant. Marjorie Taylor Green, a Georgia congresswoman who unsuccessfully sought Johnson’s impeachment in May, suggested Musk become speaker.

Meanwhile, Trump — the only person who could throw Johnson a lifeline — has been mixed, telling Fox News that Johnson could “easily” stay on as speaker if he “acts decisively and toughly.”

However, determination may not be enough when every direction for the speaker seems to lead to a dead end.