The spectacular implosion of the Donald Trump-backed temporary spending bill sent Washington insiders and political observers into a mad dash to explain their position – and in some cases criticize their own party.
The last-minute proposal hastily assembled by House Republicans to avert a holiday shutdown failed to pass Thursday evening with the GOP able to scramble together just 174 “yes” votes within the party out of the 290 needed.
The chaotic episode – and looming government shutdown – dominated media coverage and provoked an immediate stream of reaction.
“The takeover is complete,” Condé Naste legal affairs editor Luke Zaleski posted to his social media feed after the failed vote Thursday. “Elon is the media and government.” Zaleski added in a follow-up post: "Today Elon became the ruler of the world. Amazing!"
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) blamed Congress' failure to pass a spending bill on Trump and the influence of tech billionaire Musk, an opinion echoed by many Democrats.
“Trump and Musk told congressional Republicans to shut down the government,” Landsman told his social media followers on X. “Awful. This hurts everyone and will cost our economy billions.”
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But Musk in a post to the social media platform he owns, X, wasn’t ready to let himself or Republicans shoulder responsibility – and threw responsibility to Democrats.
“A super fair & simple bill was put to a vote and only 2 Democrats in Congress were in favor,” Musk told his 208 million followers. “Therefore, responsibility for the shutdown rests squarely on the shoulders of @RepJeffries.”
New York Times’ Lulu Garcia-Navarro reacted on CNN to the spending bill’s collapse with one word: “Insanity.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) wrote on X that he "voted no on a Trillion Dollar CR that I wasn’t even allowed to read."
“Congress needs to feel the pain of their actions and confront reality,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who added that he was "one of the first out publicly against" the bill. “I’m against raising the debt ceiling without major spending cuts/reform.”
Meanwhile, outgoing White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused congressional Republicans of “doing the bidding of their billionaire benefactors at the expense of hardworking Americans.”
“Republicans are breaking their word to support a bipartisan agreement that would lower prescription drug costs and make it harder to offshore jobs to China — and instead putting forward a bill that paves the way for tax breaks for billionaires while cutting critical programs working families count on, from Social Security to Head Start,” Jean-Pierre wrote in a statement Thursday, according to CNN.
