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“Billionaire Elon Musk plunged on Tuesday into the congressional debate over President Donald Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill, calling it a ‘disgusting abomination’ that will increase the federal deficit…
“The House of Representatives passed it by one vote last month, after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the measure would add $3.8 trillion to the federal government's $36.2 trillion in debt. The Senate, also controlled by Trump's Republicans, aims to pass the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ in the next month, though senators are expected to revise the House version.” Reuters
The left is critical of the bill, and argues that Musk’s opposition is due to its failure to continue EV credits.
“‘Pork’ is not the issue with the bill. In dollars and cents, the bill (per Wednesday’s fresh new Congressional Budget Office estimates) cuts taxes to the tune of $3.7 trillion over 10 years and cuts spending $1.3 trillion, increasing the deficit by $2.4 trillion. The biggest spending measures in the bill are defense upgrades and a massive boost for border security and internal immigration enforcement—things Musk should like…
“As a matter of gossip, the long-prophesied Musk-Trump split over Trump’s legislative agenda was irresistible to all. Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison told NOTUS that ‘it’s like mommy and daddy are fighting.’ Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told me he wondered how long it would be until we got a Trump post calling Musk a druggie…
“Among those, meanwhile, who were not having a good time: Mike Johnson. The House speaker told CNN on Tuesday that he’d just had a good conversation with Musk the previous day about the bill, and so the sudden U-turn came as both ‘surprising’ and ‘very disappointing.’ Johnson, in as polite a way as he could say it, suggested that Musk’s reasons were business-related, given how the OBBBA repeals electric vehicle and clean-energy subsidies.”
Jim Newell, Slate
“[Tesla] stands to lose billions of dollars from tax credits that would expire this year under the current version of the bill. ‘When businessmen criticize legislation, journalists don’t take them at their word, they look at how the legislation would impact their business interests,’ a Republican source told Politico. ‘They should be doing that in this case.’”
Issie Lapowsky, Vanity Fair
“According to polling, the bill is unpopular, underwater in approval by double-digits. Rather than be the centerpiece of the GOP agenda, it has fast become an albatross around the necks of every Republican. Nevertheless, they have made egregious statements in defense of the bill… Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) provided Democrats with the talking point they could [only] dream of: Republicans justifying cuts to Medicaid because ‘We’re all going to die.’…
“If Republicans pass this nightmarish bill, their own constituents will suffer from severe Medicaid, SNAP, and green energy [cuts], setting them up for defeat in 2026. If they don’t pass it, the Trump tax cuts will expire, the MAGA base will be in an uproar, and Trump’s presidency will be in tatters.”
Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian
The right is divided.
The right is divided.
“The large majority of the budget impact over the next ten years comes from extending the tax cuts in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Those provisions otherwise would expire at the end of this year. The alleged $2.4 trillion impact is not compared to what we are now taking in and spending, it is compared to a hypothetical world where on January 1 we would have the largest tax increase in American history. Which, in turn, would have devastating consequences for American families and for our economy.”
John Hinderaker, Power Line Blog
“The House bill could be far better on tax policy and spending reduction. The Senate could make improvements such as reducing the $40,000 state-and-local tax deduction cap, scrapping the tax exclusions for tips and overtime, and reducing the federal Medicaid match for able-bodied adults…
“But the House bill does avoid a $4.5 trillion tax hike next year and cuts spending by some $1.5 trillion over 10 years by making some useful reforms to Medicaid, student loans and food stamps. It also ends most of the Inflation Reduction Act’s green-energy subsidies…
“Mr. Musk has done yeoman’s work trying to reduce the federal bureaucracy and improve how government works. He’s right that both parties in Congress are spendthrifts. But one reason for that is because whenever Congress tries to cut something, special interests scream, as Mr. Musk is doing over green subsidies. If the House bill fails, there won’t be any cuts, only a huge tax increase. Is that what Elon wants?”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
Others argue, “I honestly don’t know if I would have voted to pass the bill in the House. But in its current form, I wouldn’t have much genuine enthusiasm for it… The bill represents the worst of both worlds for Republicans: It subjects them to political attacks for reducing Medicaid spending growth, but it does not make enough reductions to change the program’s explosive growth in fundamental ways.”
Christopher Jacobs, The Federalist
“I think the red line should be that no one should be voting for a bill that increases deficits right now. That seems like a very obvious baseline. Which isn’t just to say you have to vote for a bill that’s going to balance the budget in year one — that’s obviously not going to happen — but directionally, you cannot claim to be a fiscal conservative and vote ‘yes’ on something that leaves us with a bigger deficit tomorrow than we already have today.”
Oren Cass, Politico
