A House Republican took aim at tech billionaire Elon Musk for his influence in the lower chamber as lawmakers scramble to reach a deal to avoid a holiday government shutdown.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) joined with 37 other Republicans and most Democrats to reject a spending bill backed by President-elect Donald Trump Thursday night. He told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday that he was frustrated that House leadership introduced a new bill without speaking to members in the GOP conference.
“Then today, we launched this bill without talking to really anybody in the Conference about what we changed. And then, I was accused of surprising people, of blindsiding people, by my opinion, when I was never consulted in the first place,” he said on “The Source.”
The GOP-led House rejected a Trump-backed plan to fund the federal government and suspend the debt ceiling Thursday night, delivering a setback to the president-elect just a month before he takes office. Trump and Musk effectively torpedoed a separate bipartisan spending agreement earlier this week that had support from both Democrats and Republicans.
In recent days, Republicans have faced backlash for Musk’s sway on the legislation. McCormick joined the chorus of critics on Thursday by questioning why the richest man in the world has so much influence.
“This is a leadership challenge that [House Speaker] Mike Johnson has to define himself with. Are you going to get the right input from the right people to get this bill passed? Because, quite frankly, you can’t do it in a vacuum,” he said.
“Last time I checked, Elon Musk doesn’t have a vote in Congress. Now, he has influence, and he will put pressure on us to do whatever he thinks the right thing is for him. But I have 760,000 people that voted for me, to do the right thing for them, and that’s what matters to me,” he added.
Trump signaled Friday that he doesn’t mind a government shutdown as long as it’s on President Joe Biden’s watch. Congress has until Friday night to vote to fund the federal government to avert a shutdown.
“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now, under the Biden Administration, not after January 20th, under ‘TRUMP.’ This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will!” he wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump does not fear government shutdowns the way Johnson and the lawmakers see federal closures as political losers that harm the livelihoods of Americans. The incoming Trump administration vows to slash the federal budget and fire thousands of employees. Trump himself sparked the longest government shutdown in history in his first term at the White House, the monthlong closures over the 2018-19 Christmas holiday and New Year period.
More importantly for the president-elect is his demand for pushing the thorny debt ceiling debate off the table before he returns to the White House. The federal debt limit expires Jan. 1, and Trump doesn’t want the first months of his new administration saddled with tough negotiations in Congress to lift the nation’s borrowing capacity. It gives Democrats, who will be in the minority next year, leverage.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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