Friday Insights-December 20, 2024

Puppet master Musk tangles the strings.

Happy Holidays? I’m not so sure after Donald Trump Elon Musk and his team went to Capitol Hill this week to kill a government spending bill that would have averted an end-of-year government shutdown. Musk appears to have torpedoed a bipartisan agreement reached earlier in the week without consulting with anyone other than Vivek Ramaswamy.

Musk made Trump look clueless.

After the embarrassing defeat, the President-Elect, no doubt with the help of panicked aides, quickly jumped on the Musk train and raised the debt ceiling issue. That Plan B bill reduced the size of the funding bill from more than 1,500 pages to about 100 pages and was forcefully endorsed by Trump and Musk but failed passage 175-234 after 38 Republicans and all but two Democrats voted against it.

Republicans are now working on a “Plan C” bill, but it is unclear what it will look like. Democrats are relishing the spectacle of the Trump administration previewing its governing style a month before taking office.

That brings us to my Insight of the Week: When Trump sold his soul to Musk in exchange for more than $250 million in campaign support, he got more than he bargained for. Even after being rewarded with the co-chairmanship of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk did not go away.

Funding for many federal programs ends today (December 20) at midnight. Read about it here.

More on Trump’s handiwork in Washington.

Presumably, the first funding bill, the 1,500 giant that enjoyed bipartisan support, was quietly endorsed by Trump. Did Trump know what was in it or trouble himself to talk to Republicans like Chip Roy (R-TX)? Doubtful.

The President-Elect was distracted planning the Inauguration, bragging about being named Time’s Man of the Year, and promoting a few more Trump-branded collectibles. He expected the bipartisan agreement to pass, but Musk and Ramaswamy had other ideas. They did not like the bill, which included increasing pay for legislators, funding for farm subsidies likely to be slated for reduction or elimination by DOGE, and $100 billion in disaster assistance.

Musk and Vivek threatened Republican legislators, most of whom welcomed the prospect of avoiding an ugly government shutdown and just wanted to go home to their States or districts, by telling them if they voted for the bill, endorsed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, they would be “defeated” in 2026. I have read that Musk may have even mentioned that he would finance primary challenges against them. The defeat of that bill, Plan A, was unexpected.

Logically, Musk and Ramaswamy wanted to blow up the first funding bill. They fancy themselves “disrupters” and expect DOGE to transform government. The mess they created in Washington demonstrates how difficult governing is when you have a tiny majority in the House that includes “uncontrollable” members like Mr. Roy and, apparently, more than three dozen other right-wingers willing to shut down government.

Republican voters, especially the ones who sent the most radical Republicans to Washington, are reaping what they sowed.

Let’s alienate Canada.

What Donald Trump is doing to Canada is disgraceful and destructive.

For more than 200 years, Canada has not posed a military threat to the United States. For more than 100 years, Canadians have fought wars alongside Americans in two world wars, Vietnam and the Middle East. Canada has also been a reliable trading party with the U.S. Trump wants to end our alliance with Canada. He has threatened Canada with huge 25 percent tariffs and, most recently, has started to ridicule Canada in social media postings, referring to Prime Minister Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau” and calling the country “The Great Commonwealth of Canada.” He is suggesting Canada should be the 51^st State.

If Canada seeks new alliances with the European Union or even China, could you blame them?

And don’t forget that Trump has also suggested he might send U.S. troops into Mexico to stop drug smuggling.

Would a U.S. with hostile countries to both our north and south be a “Great America?” I don’t think so.

Thank you.

My fingers are crossed that a “Plan C” will be announced, passed by Congress, and signed by President Biden. Americans should not have to worry about whether the government will continue to operate, but that is what you get when you elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk as your leaders.

Happy holidays.