Over the last few weeks, as Elon Musk was wrapping up his time as a Special Government Employee, he’s been pretty vocal about his dislike of President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” and expressing disappointment that all of his DOGE cuts have not been codified yet – despite knowing that those cuts have to come through a rescissions package and not through a reconciliation bill due to Senate rules.
Musk and Trump held a joint press conference on Friday to mark Musk’s departure from formal government service and presented a somewhat united front on things, essentially agreeing to disagree on the Big, Beautiful Bill.
RELATED: Guess Whose Feelings Are Hurt Over the ‘Big Beautiful Bill?’
Tuesday morning Musk decided to “go there” again with his criticism:
Musk wrote:
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Nobody expects people to agree all the time, even if they are working toward the same goal. But Elon’s disagreement has morphed into something different and I can’t quite put my finger on it yet. There’s some reason he’s actively working to sabotage Trump, and in time it’ll become clear. For now, it’s just puzzling. He already made his position on the bill clear, so why go to this extreme now and personally attack those who voted for it and claim they have bad motives?
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller debunked Musk’s concern trolling last week. His explanation was lengthy, but it’s extremely important for the public to have accurate information about this bill, and why certain things are not and cannot be included in this effort. He wrote (emphasis mine):
“I’ve seen a few claims making the rounds on the Big Beautiful Bill that require correction.
“The first is that it doesn’t “codify the DOGE cuts.” A reconciliation bill, which is a budget bill that passes with 50 votes, is limited by senate rules to “mandatory” spending only — eg Medicaid and Food Stamps. The senate rules prevent it from cutting “discretionary” spending — eg the Department of Education or federal grants. The DOGE cuts are overwhelmingly discretionary, not mandatory. The bill saves more than 1.6 TRILLION in mandatory spending, including the largest-ever welfare reform. A remarkable achievement.
“I’ve also seen claims the bill increases the deficit. This lie is based on a CBO accounting gimmick. Income tax rates from the 2017 tax cut are set to expire in September. They were always planned to be permanent. CBO says maintaining *current* rates adds to the deficit, but by definition leaving these income tax rates unchanged cannot add one penny to the deficit. The bill’s spending cuts REDUCE the deficit against the current law baseline, which is the only correct baseline to use.
“Another fantastically false claim is that the bill spends trillions of dollars. This is just completely invented out of whole cloth. This is not a ten year budget bill—it doesn’t “fund” almost any operations of government, which are funded in the annual budget bills (which this is not). In other words, if this bill passed, but the annual budget bill did not, there would be no government funding. Under the math that critics are using, if we passed a one paragraph reconciliation bill that cut simply 50 billion in food stamp spending, they would say the bill “added” trillions in spending and debt because they are counting ALL the projected federal spending that exists entirely outside the scope of this legislation, which is of course preposterous. The only funding in the bill is for the President’s border and defense priorities, while enacting a net spending cut of over 1.6 TRILLION dollars.
“The bill has two fiscal components: a massive tax cut and a massive spending cut.”
There are some portions of the bill I’m not a huge fan of (the baby bond, for one), but overall, given the slim majority in the House and the Senate rules, I’d rather keep that in and get it passed than try to pass individual bills that the Dems will gridlock, delaying the administration from fulfilling its campaign promises. Miller posted a long list of the items in the Big, Beautiful Bill that fulfill campaign promises:
- Largest tax cut and reform in history
- No tax on tips and overtime
- Massive tax cut for fixed-income Seniors
- Interest on car loans fully tax deductible if the car is American
- Fast-tracks new energy projects and provides protection against future regulation
- Terminates Green New Deal
- No welfare or gov’t healthcare for illegals
- Ends waste, fraud and abuse in government welfare, the largest welfare reform in history
- Full up-front funding for the entire border wall and water barriers (will never need to ask Democrats for these funds, denying them leverage on all future annual appropriations bills)
- Pay raise for ICE and Border Patrol
- Full funding for every border and immigration security priority the American People voted for, making it the most significant border and homeland bill in American history
- Port security to keep fentanyl out of the US
- Funds the Golden Dome, a state-of-the-art shield against enemy missile strikes on our soil
- Defunds the transgender agenda and attacks on our kids
- Cuts 1.6 TRILLION in net mandatory spending
- The most pro-American tax bill ever, including 100% expensing on new American factories to ensure the future is Made in the USA
As Miller points out, by funding the border wall in this bill, Democrats have one less way to hold the appropriations bill – this one and all others – hostage. That’s also why there’s defense spending in the bill, and defunding of the transgender agenda. And, we don’t have to deal with fighting over making the Trump tax cuts permanent later.
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about Musk’s post during Tuesday’s press conference and replied, “Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn’t change the President’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”
Again, I don’t know why Elon is going to hard and so personally on this and knowingly promoting false information. It doesn’t smell like simply a principled take.
Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left’s lies, new legislation wasn’t needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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