Two key allies of President-Elect Trump came out strong against House Speaker Mike Johnson’s 1,547-page, pork-laden omnibus spending bill on X, Wednesday.
The bill funds the federal government into March and includes more than $100 billion in disaster aid, in addition to a number of controversial policy provisions.
Billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump’s picks to lead his DOGE advisory board, have both given the spending bill an emphatic thumbs down.
Musk and Ramaswamy are joining a slew of conservatives in the House and Senate who mounted an immediate revolt after the text of the bloated legislation was unveiled Tuesday.
“Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?” Musk asked in a post that included a photo of the mammoth stack of bill’s pages.
Although the bill is being touted as a “continuing resolution,” it is packed with “major spending increases and changes to the law,” Musk noted. “That is NOT a “continuing” resolution.”
Musk reacted viscerally to the bill’s one-year extension of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), a government censorship entity that was set to be shut down in a few days.
“THIS CRIMINAL BILL SHOULD NOT PASS,” X owner Musk wrote.
“The bill should fail,” Ramaswamy concurred. Ramaswamy made a longer statement later Wednesday, posted in full below, explaining his opposition to the Omnibus.
The Global Engagement Center was founded to be a counterterrorism tool, but devolved into a government censorship enterprise, working with Big Tech companies to censor conservatives on an industrial scale.
A report released by the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in November of 2023, revealed how DHS’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) coordinated with Stanford and other groups to create an “Election Integrity Partnership” (EIP) in the summer of 2020.
The purpose of the partnership, according to Republicans on the Weaponization Committee, was for “the federal government to launder its censorship activities in hopes of bypassing both the First Amendment and public scrutiny.”
The Omnibus bill also includes a provision for an automatic pay raise for lawmakers, and a provision allowing lawmakers to opt out of Obamacare and instead use the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, according to Punchbowl News.
Also tucked into the bill is a provision that lets Congress block subpoenas for House data, including emails, potentially preventing any investigation into the partisan Select January 6 Committee.
Donald Trump Jr. expressed his disappointment on X: “So the house is going to vote to protect itself from glaring and obvious wrongdoing?” he wrote. “The American people didn’t vote for this. They voted for the opposite. They voted for transparency. This cannot pass.”
“This is insane and has nothing to do with a ‘continuing resolution’!” Musk wrote in reaction to a post about the provision.
Musk added: “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!”
In case he hadn’t made himself clear, the X owner later Wednesday reposted the following meme:
During an appearance on “Fox and Friends” Wednesday morning, Speaker Johnson (R-La.) said Musk told him he didn’t like the bill last night.
“Elon, Vivek and I are on a text exchange together and I was explaining to them the background of this,” Johnson told the hosts, adding that he was on the phone with Ramaswamy until midnight.
The speaker said that Ramaswamy said he understood that GOP leaders are in “an impossible situation” due to their current “razer thin” majority in the House and the Democrat majority in the Senate.
“Any bill has to have Democrat votes,” he explained.
Johnson said they told him they don’t like the spending bill and he said, “Guess what, fellas, I don’t either. We just have to get this done.”
“Here’s the key, by doing this, we are clearing the decks and we are setting up for Trump to come roaring back with the America First agenda,” he added.
Ramaswamy’s full statement explaining his opposition to the Omnibus spending bill:
I wanted to read the full 1,500+ page bill & speak with key leaders before forming an opinion. Having done that, here’s my view: it’s full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways & pork barrel politics. If Congress wants to get serious about government efficiency, they should VOTE NO.
Keeping the government open until March 14 will cost ~$380BN by itself, but the true cost of this omnibus CR is far greater due to new spending. Renewing the Farm Bill for an extra year: ~$130BN. Disaster relief: $100BN. Stimulus for farmers: $10BN. The Francis Scott Key Bridge replacement: $8BN. The proposal adds at least 65 cents of new spending for every dollar of continued discretionary spending.
The legislation will end up hurting many of the people it purports to help. Debt-fueled spending sprees may “feel good” today, but it’s like showering cocaine on an addict: it’s not compassion, it’s cruelty. Farmers will see more land sold to foreign buyers when taxes inevitably rise to meet our obligations. Our children will be saddled with crippling debt. Interest payments will be the largest item in our national budget.
Congress has known about this deadline since they created it in late September. There’s no reason why this couldn’t have gone through the standard process, instead of being rushed to a vote right before Congressmen want to go home for the holidays. The urgency is 100% manufactured & designed to avoid serious public debate.
The bill could have easily been under 20 pages. Instead, there are dozens of unrelated policy items crammed into the 1,547 pages of this bill. There’s no legitimate reason for them to be voted on as a package deal by a lame-duck Congress. 72 pages worth of “Pandemic Preparedness and Response” policy; renewal of the much-criticized “Global Engagement Center,” a key player in the federal censorship state; 17 different pieces of Commerce legislation; paving the way for a new football stadium in D.C.; a pay raise for Congressmen & Senators and making them eligible for Federal Employee Health Benefits. It’s indefensible to ram these measures through at the last second without debate.
We’re grateful for DOGE’s warm reception on Capitol Hill. Nearly everyone agrees we need a smaller & more streamlined federal government, but actions speak louder than words. This is an early test. The bill should fail.
Update:
Trump and VP-elect JD Vance put out a joint statement urging Republicans to negotiate the debt ceiling now, rather than punting the hairy issue into his term, and to streamline the spending, rather than “give the Democrats everything they want.”
The most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025. It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed.
Meanwhile, Congress is considering a spending bill that would give sweetheart provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney. The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the corrupt January 6 committee—which accomplished nothing for the American people and hid security failures that happened that day. This bill would also give Congress a pay increase while many Americans are struggling this Christmas.
Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.
Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country…
Trump weighed in again on the Omnibus on Truth Social later Wednesday afternoon:
Sounds like the ridiculous and extraordinarily expensive Continuing Resolution, PLUS, is dying fast, but can anyone imagine passing it without either terminating, or extending, the Debt Ceiling guillotine coming up in June? Unless the Democrats terminate or substantially extend Debt Ceiling now, I will fight ‘till the end. This is a nasty TRAP set in place by the Radical Left Democrats! They are looking to embarrass us in June when it comes up for a Vote. The people that extended it, from September 28th to June 1st, should be ashamed of themselves. It was political malpractice! Also, the Communist Global Engagement Center, a project of Crooked Hillary Clinton, should not in any way, shape, or form be extended and, the shielding of the very corrupt J6 Unselect Committee of Political Losers and Thugs would be suicidal for any Republican approving it. Likewise, this is not a good time for Congress to be asking for pay increases. Hopefully, you’ll be entitled to such an increase in the near future when we, “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
If Republicans try to pass a clean Continuing Resolution without all of the Democrat “bells and whistles” that will be so destructive to our Country, all it will do, after January 20th, is bring the mess of the Debt Limit into the Trump Administration, rather than allowing it to take place in the Biden Administration. Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried. Everything should be done, and fully negotiated, prior to my taking Office on January 20th, 2025.
Update:
Musk on X 2:58 pm: “Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed! VOX POPULI VOX DEI.”
J.D. Vance was seen entering Speaker Johnson’s office on Capitol Hill Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, Musk and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos were seen having dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
Isn’t it curious that Trump and Vance and Johnson and Musk and Vivek were all in the booth at the Army-Navy game last Saturday. I wonder what was going on in between selfies with Daniel Penny.