Elon Musk Is Utilizing His Platform and Energy to Meme Us Right into a Authorities Shutdown

Elon Musk spent the previous few days posting a couple of authorities spending invoice on X, the web site he owns. Musk, who’s cozy with the incoming Trump administration and thinks the federal government spends an excessive amount of cash, didn’t need the spending invoice to move. He posted about this more than 100 times. As of this writing, it seems that Musk has gotten his want.

Indignant constituents referred to as their representatives. The GOP’s most unhinged members revolted and the bill is dead in the water. It’s attainable that we are going to start the vacation season with a authorities shutdown. One orchestrated by an unelected billionaire.

That is our future.

No payments needs to be handed Congress till Jan 20, when @realDonaldTrump takes workplace.

None.

Zero.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024

Elon Musk started to hector and put up concerning the invoice on Wednesday. “No payments needs to be handed Congress till Jan 20, when @realDonaldTrump takes workplace. None. Zero,” he mentioned in a put up on X.

Rep. Marjorie Taylore Greene of Georgia, after all, supported a authorities shutdown. “The federal government can shut down all the way in which till Jan twentieth so far as I’m involved,” she mentioned. “AND WE MUST STAND FIRM WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO STOP THE MADNESS!!”

Thanks @newtgingrich!

I’m all in.

The federal government can shut down all the way in which till Jan twentieth so far as I’m involved.

AND WE MUST STAND FIRM WITH THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO STOP THE MADNESS!!

It doesn’t matter what.

Even when we have now to elect new management.

I’m ALL IN. https://t.co/gVA0H4Q4iU

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) December 19, 2024

Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina obtained in on the act and posted photos of herself hovering over the large 1,500 page continuing resolution “The final CR we did was 21 pages. This as soon as is 1,547. Let that sink in. Extra pages, extra taxpayer {dollars} flushed down the drain.”

The final CR we did was 21 pages. This as soon as is 1,547.

Let that sink in. Extra pages, extra taxpayer {dollars} flushed down the drain. pic.twitter.com/AxiBmQPlpS

— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) December 18, 2024

“Right here they’re facet by facet,” she mentioned in a follow-up tweet that included no photograph.

By the afternoon, photos of the CR with the phrases “Kill Invoice” stylized to match the Quentin Tarantino movie have been trending on X. In a reply to a Musk put up, Nancy confirmed off an AI-generated image of herself dressed because the Bride, the hero from the movie.

Uniform Of The Day. Compliments of @CharlieWrldTV pic.twitter.com/d1OB5YJkCt

— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) December 18, 2024

A thirsty reply guy responded to the faux photograph of the yellow cat-suited Mace. “I would like you to chop my arms off.”

“You’re uncontrolled,” Mace replied to her reply man, adopted by a laughing cry face emoji.

I’m glad everyone seems to be having enjoyable.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the long-winded Gallant to Musk’s shitposting Goofus on the Division of Authorities Effectivity, wrote a 400-word put up concerning the 1,500-page spending invoice. He’d learn it, he mentioned, so that you don’t must. “Maintaining the federal government open till March 14 will value ~$380BN by itself, however the true value of this omnibus CR is way larger attributable to new spending,” he mentioned.

I needed to learn the complete 1,500+ web page invoice & communicate with key leaders earlier than forming an opinion. Having carried out that, this is my view: it is filled with extreme spending, particular curiosity giveaways & pork barrel politics. If Congress needs to get severe about authorities effectivity, they…

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 18, 2024

Hours late to his personal social gathering, Donald Trump posted on Reality Social concerning the invoice at 6:40 PM on Wednesday. “If Republicans attempt to move a clear Persevering with Decision with out the entire Democrat ‘bells and whistles’ that can be so harmful to our Nation, all it’s going to do, after January twentieth, is convey the mess of the Debt Restrict into the Trump Administration, quite than permitting it to happen within the Biden Administration,” he said. “Any Republican that will be so silly as to do that ought to, and can, be Primaried. All the things needs to be carried out, and absolutely negotiated, previous to my taking Workplace on January twentieth, 2025.”

The saga of the CR invoice is exceptional for a number of causes, not the least of which is Trump’s notable absence from the proceedings. Musk has made himself the face of this factor. The unelected South African immigrant billionaire has come to D.C. to flex his muscle tissue and curtail authorities spending. He appears to have received the primary spherical. He did it, partially, by posting.

It’s true that authorities spending payments are filled with pork. There’s at all times carve-outs, pork barrel initiatives, and raises for the individuals in energy in Washington. This Persevering with Decision was no totally different. It will have stored the lights on, but it surely additionally would have enriched the individuals who wrote the invoice.

I believe that Musk and his cohort, regardless of their claims in any other case, merely need to change who’s enriched by the payments. Musk is nice with cash. He is aware of the way to extract it from the world round him. He’s not a tech genius, he’s an extraction genius. His wealth is constructed, partially, on billions of {dollars} of government contracts. It’s a great guess that, after 4 years of Trump, he’ll have extra billions and extra contracts. Not much less. And he’ll put up by means of all of it, making his followers assume he’s combating for them as he traces his personal pockets.

On Thursday, Trump prattled on about abolishing the debt ceiling—a restrict set by Congress on the amount of money it could actually borrow to pay Washington’s payments. In an interview with NBC, Trump once more referred to as for the top of the ceiling. “It doesn’t imply something, besides psychologically,” he said. So. Whereas Musk was advocating for a authorities shutdown due to value overruns, Trump stumped for the elimination of a restrict on the amount of money the federal government can borrow. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren shortly jumped in to agree with Trump on abolishing the debt ceiling.

On Thursday morning, Rep. Greene referred to as for Elon Musk to turn into speaker of the home. “DOGE can solely really be completed by reigning in Congress to enact actual authorities effectivity.  The institution must be shattered similar to it was yesterday. This could possibly be the way in which.”