Since House Speaker Mike Johnson released the 1,547-page funding bill Tuesday night, several allies of President-elect Donald Trump have been leading a pressure campaign to block the continuing resolution.
Johnson's CR has been the focus of scrutiny from lawmakers and MAGA allies alike, with tech mogul Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy opposing the bill. Musk and Ramaswamy are co-heads of the Department of Government Efficiency in the incoming Trump administration, and much of their criticism revolves around the bill's price tag.
“Almost everyone agrees we need a smaller, more streamlined federal government, but actions speak louder than words. This is an early test. This bill should be defeated. ”
Mr. Musk is referred to Johnson's CR says he “stole tax money” a label is attached The bill is a “crime.”
“Any Representative or Senator who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out within two years!” Musk said on his social media platform X.
Musk: “All government spending is taxes'' said. “Governments either tax you directly or tax you through inflation by increasing the money supply, which means that your spending bill is your tax bill, which is a very important concept to understand. ”
Much of the controversy surrounding CR was also about time constraints. The bill was originally scheduled to be announced by Dec. 14, but was delayed multiple times until its announcement late Tuesday. In addition to delays and a lack of transparency, the text of the bill was released days before the Dec. 20 deadline to avoid a government shutdown before Christmas.
“Despite trying to avoid the typical holiday omnibus, this bill is no longer a clean CR for the new year, but packed with significant policy changes and spending increases, written behind closed doors and There was also no proper public input,” Heritage Action told Blaze News in a statement.
The statement continued: “Members of Congress have not been given sufficient time to read and consider the consequences of this bill. Heritage Action strongly opposes this continuing resolution.”
The pressure of deadlines and having to read through a bill that is more than 1,500 pages has also raised concerns. This is a far cry from Prime Minister Boris Johnson's September promise to break with the Christmas omnibus tradition.
“We beat the Christmas omnibus,” Johnson said. said During a press conference. “And I have no intention of going back to that awful tradition. So there will be no Christmas omnibus. … There will be no bus service either.”
In addition to Johnson's pledge to go without a Christmas recap, leaders have known about the deadline for months, and the delay has frustrated lawmakers and Trump's allies.
“Congress has known about this deadline since it set it in late September,” Ramaswamy said. said He said this in a post to X on Wednesday. “There is no reason why the standard process could not have been followed rather than rushing a vote at the last minute when members of Congress wanted to go home for the holidays. The urgency is 100% intentionally created and intended.” Please avoid discussions in public. ”
The CR was originally supposed to be a clean bill, containing a relatively small number of relatively uncontroversial provisions, such as disaster relief. Instead, the 1,547-page bill includes hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus checks for farmers, infrastructure to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge, pay raises for members of Congress, an opt-out from Obamacare, and other provisions.
“The bill could easily have been less than 20 pages,” Ramaswamy said. “Instead, this bill's 1,547 pages are filled with dozens of unrelated policy items. There is no good reason for it to be voted on as a package deal by a lame-duck Congress.”
“We are grateful for DOGE’s warm welcome at Parliament House,” Mr. Ramaswamy continued. “Almost everyone agrees we need a smaller, more streamlined federal government, but actions speak louder than words. This is an early test. The bill should fail.”
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