Elon Musk said Wednesday that every member of Congress who votes for the CR should be voted out in two years. That raises the question of how much power an unelected billionaire should have.
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After buying himself a president for $44,270,000,000 ($44 billion for the world’s largest misinformation megaphone, and a $270-million down payment to get Donald Trump elected), Elon Musk now has his sights set on purchasing a second branch of government.
Ahead of a vote on a massive continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the government through March 14, the billionaire has put Republican lawmakers on notice that they risk their jobs if they vote to pass it (and avert a government shutdown).
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1869446782574645386
“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” Musk wrote on his social media site X.
His disdain for the CR is by no means an outlier in the MAGAverse. Many of Trump’s most hardcore supporters have a real issue with federal spending, which makes Musk such a hero of theirs for promising to curb it when he takes office Trump is sworn in next year.
And they are not entirely wrong, either (well, they are wrong about the “hero” part because Musk will stand to benefit greatly from his “government efficiency” project).
The US government spends too much (and/or taxes too little), and this is not a partisan problem. There is plenty of blame to go around in Washington for deficit spending, which is why true MAGAists blame the “uniparty,” i.e., establishment Republicans and Democrats, for the fiscal situation (but certainly not Trump, under whom $7 trillion and change were added to the debt).
And, if the CR passes and a government shutdown is averted, then it will be with the votes of a coalition of Republicans and Democrats.
There are also legitimate complaints about the process, which has almost become routine in Washington. Congress first fails to pass individual spending bills and then jams all funding into “omnibus” legislation or these CRs, that are introduced at the last second, which puts pressure on lawmakers to pass massive bills (this one is 1,500+ pages long) without having read them.
But this isn’t about the legitimacy of their grievances in this case.
It’s about the power billionaires in general, and Musk in particular, have in the political system.
Here we have a guy who is ineligible to be elected president but nevertheless bought himself a seat in the White House and now threatens to evict any lawmakers who won’t do his bidding.
Regular Americans can pick up the phone, call their members of Congress (202-224-3121), and complain about the process of how these bills are passed, individual provisions, or their total cost.
Musk can pour a billion dollars into a super PAC and fund the primary opponents of every single lawmaker who votes against this and prop up candidates who will do what he wants.
And this is money he is going to recoup down the road when his businesses get government contracts and regulators are prohibited from conducting oversight, or simply because investors love the security of putting their money in companies owned by a guy who controls two branches of government.
Therefore, in Musk’s case, these are not idle threats, and we will find out later this week if he is now powerful enough already to tell Congress how to vote.
If the CR fails, we would have the first government shutdown that a person is responsible for who has no role in government… all it takes are bags of money, a social media website, and some extreme views.
In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
