A Republican from Georgia is admonishing tech billionaire turned political force Elon Musk for tanking Thursday night’s continuing resolution to fund the government.
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Speaking to CNN’s Katilan Collins, Rep. Rich McCormick said:
This is a leadership challenge that Mike Johnson has to define himself with. Are you going to get the right input from the right people to get this bill passed? Because, quite frankly, you can’t do it in a vacuum. And it doesn’t matter because, quite frankly, last time I checked, Elon Musk doesn’t have a vote in Congress.
Now, he has influence, and he’ll put pressure on us to do whatever he thinks the right thing is for him. But I have 760,000 people that voted for me to do the right thing for them. And that’s what matters to me.
Musk, the wealthiest person on the planet, who hit a net worth of $400 billion earlier this month, helped support President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to take back the White House. He entered into the political fray with a splashy quarter million dollars of influence, including his America PAC contributions, in-kind donations as well as check-cutting to Trump’s joint fundraising committees.
Musk is set to co-lead the new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) alongside former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, promising to reduce federal spending and waste by trillions. Musk was expected to take on this role once Trump is inaugurated in January, but he has taken an early start on the initiative and has already begun exerting influence on policy matters.
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His newfound Washington influence is welcomed by some, with Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul suggesting that Musk should become Speaker of the House. Additionally, GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has weighed in on the idea, suggesting she would be open to Musk in the leadership role.
On Thursday, Rep. Greene wrote on X, the social media platform notably owned by Musk, saying:
I’d be open to supporting @elonmusk for Speaker of the House. DOGE can only truly be accomplished by reigning in Congress to enact real government efficiency.
The establishment needs to be shattered just like it was yesterday. This could be the way.
Read More:
Rand Paul Stirs the Pot With His Wild Suggestion of Who Should Actually Be Speaker of the House
Predictably, Democratic lawmakers are less enthused. Criticizing Musk’s influence, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) called him “President Musk” in her floor comments on Thursday, while Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) griped on social media, writing:
It’s a sad state of affairs when the richest man in the world can send us straight towards a government shutdown. He’ll be fine, but a lot of the servicemembers working without paychecks during Christmas won’t be.
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As RedState’s Bonchie pointed out recently, the left’s problem with Musk isn’t that he’s a billionaire but that he’s an influential billionaire they don’t control.
Bonchie wrote:
Democrats loathe Elon Musk because he is one of the few billionaires, the richest of them all actually, who doesn’t march in lockstep with the left and follow them off the proverbial cliff. His worst sin, other than buying their sandbox Twitter and implementing free speech on it, is that he has become close to President-elect Donald Trump.
But, as Rep. Rich McCormick has demonstrated, the dissenters aren’t solely on one side of the aisle. Unfortunately for those standing in the way, the dynamic Musk-Trump duo has promised to primary them.
