Musk shows his influence on Congress in shutdown drama

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

Conservatives in Congress – emboldened by tech multi-billionaire Elon Musk – balked.

Republicans tried to regroup on Thursday afternoon, offering a new, smaller package to fund the government. That vote failed, as 38 Republicans joined with most Democrats in voting numbers.

All this political drama provides just a taste of the chaos and unpredictability that could prevail under unified Republican rule 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 social media megaphone, and the ear of not only the President of the United States, but also the usual conservatives in Congress.

On Wednesday morning, the tech tycoon took on Did it with the Democrats to get it funded.

As the number of his posts about the proposed agreement grew into the triple digits, at times raising factually incorrect allegations made by conservative commentators, opposition to the legislation grew in Congress.

And by Wednesday evening, Donald Trump — perhaps sensing he needed to get in the face of a growing conservative rebellion — publicly said he also opposed the government funding bill.

He said this involved wasteful spending and Democratic priorities, while demanding that Congress take the politically sensitive step of raising or even eliminating the legal limit on newly issued U.S. debt, which the U.S. can repay next summer. I will reach there sometime.

Support for the stopgap spending bill then collapsed, leaving Johnson and his leadership team struggling to find an alternative way forward. As he did so, Musk celebrated and declared that “the voice of the people has prevailed”.

However, it might be more accurate to say that it was Musk’s voice that won out.

On Thursday afternoon, Republicans unveiled a new proposal that suspends the debt ceiling for the first two years of Trump’s second term, funds the government through March and some disaster relief and others included in the original funding package. measures were included.

But Musk’s participation may not go down well with some MLAs. Democrats in the chamber jeered “President Musk,” while some Republicans also complained publicly.

“Who?” Pennsylvania Republican Glenn Thompson responded when asked about Musk. “I don’t see him in the chamber.”

Musk may be the instigator, but this latest congressional funding crisis shows what’s going on – and is likely to continue – for the narrow Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

For two years, Republicans in the chamber have struggled to maintain a united front amid a party in which, at least to some degree, politicians have active contempt for the government they help run.

Internal divisions delayed Kevin McCarthy’s election as Speaker of the House in January 2022 and led to his removal the following year – a first in American history. Johnson eventually replaced him, but only after several weeks in a leaderless position.

Some Republicans hoped that with Trump’s election, members of their majority, which will be stretched even thinner when the new Congress is sworn in next month, would be more willing to march in unison to support the new president’s agenda. Will be. There are some more.

“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 internal Republican meetings Thursday afternoon.

What this week has revealed, however, is that the president-elect cannot always provide the legislature with the clear, consistent direction it needs.

For example, his insistence on raising the debt ceiling surprised many in his own party. And external influences, such as Musk or others, could bring additional instability to the process.

If Republicans are not able to get close to unanimity in the House, they will have to find ways to win over Democrats to achieve any kind of legislative success. And what this week has shown (once again) is that the kind of political compromises required could induce large numbers of Republican defections.

Trump’s party will be challenged to govern effectively on its own — but it also may not be able to afford to govern with the help of Democrats.

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

Republicans could still find a way to avoid a prolonged government shutdown through a temporary budget proposal, even if Trump’s first round of pressure resulted in an embarrassing failure to garner enough support within his own party.

However, the damage was already done for Johnson. His authority over House Republicans has been undermined – first by Musk and then by Trump – just weeks before his re-election as House speaker.

Already a Republican, Thomas Massie of Kentucky has said he will not support Johnson’s re-election. Others, including members of Johnson’s own leadership team, have not been as committed. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the flamboyant Georgia congresswoman who unsuccessfully tried to oust Johnson in May, suggested Musk become speaker.

Meanwhile, Trump – the man who could give Johnson a lifeline – equivocated, telling Fox News that Johnson could “easily” remain speaker if he “does decisive and tough work.”

However, making decisions may not be enough when every instruction to the speaker seems to lead to an impasse.