President-elect Donald Trump is now saying that he wants Congress to get rid of the arbitrary debt ceiling. Now we just have to wait and see what Shadow President Elon Musk has to say about the idea.
You don’t think Elon spent $277 million to get Trump elected without expecting something in return.
“It doesn’t mean anything, except psychologically,” Trump said dismissively of the debt ceiling, in an interview with NBC News on Thursday, as Washington scrambles to avoid a federal government shutdown on Saturday, a few days before Christmas.
He’s not wrong there, which is rare – but by taking away the debt ceiling as a future political negotiating point, Trump would be making life harder for Republicans to take the country hostage the next time they want to get their way on the budget.
This may not pass muster with Musk, the unelected tail wagging the dog, who has already scuttled a bipartisan funding bill brokered by House Speaker Mike Johnson, simply by posting on his flailing social media site that “a new bill that isn’t an insane crime against the American people should be done in 33 days,” without detailing the “insane crime against the American people” in the Johnson-backed legislative package.
“And just like that, Republican Unelected Co-President Elon Musk has killed the bill to keep the government from shutting down on Friday. All he had to do was make a few social media posts. Trump said he’d empower working people, all he’s done is empower the ultrawealthy,” Florida Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost said.
Democrats aren’t having any trouble spelling out the insane crime that Shadow President Musk and his lapdog, Trump, would be perpetrating, Scrooge-like, with their threat to shut down the government at Christmas, and for several weeks after.
Here in Virginia, for starters, more than 200,000 state residents who work for the federal government would either be furloughed or forced to work without pay, with a promise that they’ll be made whole when the shutdown were to be lifted.
And more than 100,000 Virginians would lose access to food-assistance benefits, along with delays in the cleanup and recovery from Hurricane Helene, with billions in disaster-relief funding being held up by the Musk-Trump shenanigans.
“The richest man in the world says he wants to shut down the government, forcing millions of American workers – including our troops – to go without pay through the holidays. Republicans are following his orders. This is insane,” Virginia Democratic Congressman Don Beyer said.
“Elon Musk and Donald Trump have ordered House Republicans to shut down the government, and they are on the verge of following through. Astonishing cowardice and ineptitude at the expense of the American people,” said another Virginia Democrat, Gerry Connolly, who was elected earlier this week to serve as the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
“We are two days away from a government shutdown, and here’s where things stand: Negotiators reached a deal on a bipartisan funding bill last night. DOGE Bros had a fit. Trump ordered House Republicans to kill the bill and shut down the government. Bah, humbug,” Virginia Democratic Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan said.
“Hard to imagine anything more heartless than shutting down the government and leaving disaster victims out in the cold just days before Christmas. Absolutely outrageous this is even a possibility,” U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said.
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Chris Graham
