Amid the uproar over the spending bill, some are suggesting it’s time for a new House speaker.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, suggested on X that Republicans should replace Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., with Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, who will head President-Elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency.
Rep. Rand Paul, R-Ky., floated Musk as speaker, pointing out that the speaker of the House doesn’t have to be a member of Congress.
Musk has been critical of Johnson’s 1,500 page continuing resolution to fund the federal government.
The billionaire owner of X started his Wednesday by posting a photo of the spending bill in Congress with this question: “Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?”
By the afternoon, Trump declared his opposition. And within hours, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pulled the bill he had unveiled just a day earlier.
“Elon just became the most powerful person in Washington, D.C., today,” social media influencer Wall Street Mav told The Daily Signal. “He proved he can flip enough votes in Congress to halt a spending bill.”
The continuing resolution, which would fund the government until March, was supposed to be lawmakers’ final vote before heading home for Christmas. Instead of a “clean” bill, however, Democrat and Republican negotiators loaded it with a hodge-podge of unrelated policy and additional spending, including a pay raise for members of Congress.
That caught the attention of Ramaswamy, whose video Musk shared with his followers.
“Congress is about to pass a bill that blows away your taxpayer money, but they made it over 1,500 pages long so you wouldn’t read it,” Ramaswamy said. “And the worst part is, they didn’t want you to know about any of it. That’s why they made this a last-minute jam job.”
Trump and Vice President-Elect JD Vance threw another curveball into the government spending fight. They said in a statement they want the continuing resolution to address the debt ceiling and to “call [Democrats] bluff” on a shutdown.
If Congress doesn’t pass a spending bill by Dec. 20, the government will shut down.
“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF. It is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief,” the statement says.
Trump told Fox News Digital that Johnson will “easily remain speaker” for the next Congress if he “acts decisively and tough” and eliminates “all of the traps being set by Democrats” in the spending package.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” the president-elect said.
Rob Bluey contributed to this report.
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]
