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The Billionaire Who Stole Christmas

10 Min Read

politics



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December 20, 2024

Elon Musk abandoned a bipartisan agreement to avoid a government shutdown. Trump took a step ahead of him by calling for the bill to raise the debt ceiling. The new bill failed. Who is in charge here?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives at the Capitol on December 5, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Have a great vacation! Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are just around the corner. Cultures around the world celebrate the Festival of Lights during this time. But Republicans seem to have chosen to be darkly funny. seinfeld-Invented the festival, a holiday best known for “revealing grievances.”

For those still saddened by Donald Trump’s re-election: Enjoy. your During the holiday season, Republicans vent their grievances and tear themselves apart. Schadenfreude makes a delicious side dish for the holiday table.

Summary: After Speaker Mike Johnson announced bipartisan agreement on a resolution to keep the government open until next year, the shadow president Elon Musk scrapped itposted 150 times on Xitter in opposition to the spending in Wednesday’s bill. Like Mr. Musk, Mr. Trump abruptly pulled out of the deal and made new demands on Congress to repeal or repeal the debt ceiling.

“Raising the debt ceiling is not a great thing, but we would rather do it on Biden’s watch,” Trump said. look? He knows raising the debt ceiling is unpopular with his MAGA base, but he thinks they’re stupid enough to blame it on Joe Biden. Probably so. It probably appears that way in the right-wing echo room, but the rest of us see this as the president’s insane attempt to extend budget-destroying tax cuts and raise the debt ceiling to further increase the deficit. It is considered that

politiko Analyzing the two-step between Musk and Trump In this way, the Tesla billionaire “ yay The spending-cutting scheme sparked criticism and put Trump in a corner. ”I see it the same way.

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In case you forget the suffering caused by previous closures, Social Security and Medicare payments will continue, but payments to some military personnel will be suspended. “Non-essential” federal employees will not be paid. During the 2019 shutdown, Unpaid federal workers crowd Washington, D.C.-area food banks..

Loyal and perhaps doomed Mike Johnson, recently heard bragging about his cool text message exchanges with Musk and fellow DOGE Vivek Ramaswamy, is back to square one and spending cuts, including cuts to pediatric health care. created a bill that would meet some of the mask requirements, including. In addition to cancer research, it’s a two-year debt ceiling hike to please President Trump. But it failed, with 38 Republicans voting against it and all but two Democrats voting against it.

“We must unequivocally reject the unjust oligarchy that seeks to usurp the authority of the United States Congress and the American people,” said Rosa DeLauro, a longtime progressive congresswoman from Connecticut. With this bill, Democrats did just that.

Some Republicans balked at Musk’s outsized role. Pennsylvania Rep. Glenn Thompson, chairman of the Agriculture Committee, told reporters, “I didn’t know where Mr. Musk had his voting card,” adding, “I don’t know if Mr. “I don’t know if they understand the plight of the people who are suffering,” he added. Musk’s bill included farm aid that Thompson supported.

Others, however, welcomed the new Afrikaner monarch. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on social media, “I am pleased to support @elonmusk for Speaker of the House.” “This facility needs to be shattered like it was yesterday, and this may be the way to do it.” Notable Musk teeth Eligibility to be a speaker: There are no barriers to being a member of the House of Commons or being born and raised in South Africa.

With the bill he opposed defeated and no resolution in sight, Musk turned his attention to another big priority: glorifying Nazism.

Looking at German politics, he praised The far-right anti-immigration German Alliance (AfD), a close neighbor of the Nazis, is vying for leadership in the upcoming February 23 election.

“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk wrote on X.

Also this week, Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right Reform UK party, posted a photo of himself with Musk at Mar-a-Lago. Musk wants to do more than cut government spending. He wants to recast the Republican Party in the image of Europe’s most formidable player. Is Trump participating? probably. He hosts Farage and openly praises Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. He is a friend of dictators around the world.

There has been speculation that Mr. Musk was trying to overshadow Mr. Trump and make it clear that he is the leader by pushing for the repeal of the Johnson bill, but in the end, Mr. Trump’s ego will won’t allow it. Remember, President Trump ousted his campaign manager and top adviser Steve Bannon in his first term, at a time when Bannon was overrated and overrated about Trump’s moves. is. Democrats have chosen to refer to Musk as “President Musk,” with “Vice President Trump” serving, and hope to resolve this dynamic duo. (What happened to coffee boy JD Vance?)

This may be different. Mr. Bannon brought the microphone to the party, but not the billions of dollars that would enable President Trump to threaten “key” disloyal Republicans. If Mr. Trump is given enough consideration, Mr. Musk has a good chance of surviving as the president’s enforcer.

Meanwhile, celebrations were held Friday morning, about 12 hours before the government shutdown. mike johnson said He said he was preparing a new bill: “We have a plan,” he said politiko. However, Mr. Trump I was told that I was being weighed. You probably don’t care about the ROI of the shutdown.

“If there’s going to be a government shutdown, let’s start it now under the Biden administration, not after January 20th under the Trump administration,” he wrote.


A hostile incoming administration, a massive infrastructure of courts and judges waiting to turn “free speech” into a nostalgic memory, and an old-fashioned press rapidly abdicating its responsibility to provide accurate, fact-based reporting. Independent media is required by institutions to do the job. itself.

in nationwe are bracing ourselves for an uphill battle to defend truth, transparency, and intellectual freedom, but we cannot do it alone.

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Dear Editors, nation

joan walsh



Joan Walsh, State Correspondent nationis a co-producer. SIT-IN: Harry Belafonte to host Tonight’s Show author of and What happened to white people? Find our way in the next America. Her new book (co-authored with Nick Hanauer and Donald Cohen) is Corporate Bullshit: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths that Protect America’s Profits, Power, and Wealth.

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