Musk Calls BBB a ‘Disgusting Abomination’
Maybe they weren't serious about fiscal discipline after all?
AP (“Musk calls Trump’s big tax break bill a ‘disgusting abomination,’ testing his influence over the GOP“):
Elon Musk blasted President Donald Trump’s“big, beautiful bill” of tax breaks and spending cuts as a “disgusting abomination” on Tuesday, testing the limits of his political influence as he targeted the centerpiece of Republicans’ legislative agenda.
The broadside, which Musk issued on his social media platform X, came just days after the president gave him a celebratory Oval Office farewell that marked the end of his work for the administration, where he spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk posted on X. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
[…]
The tech titan’s missives could cause headaches for Republicans on Capitol Hill, who face conflicting demands from Trump and their party’s wealthiest benefactor.
Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, said “it’s not helpful” to have Musk criticizing the legislation, but he doesn’t expect lawmakers to side with Musk over Trump.
“Senate Republicans are not going to let the tax cuts expire,” Conant said. “It just makes leadership’s job that much harder to wrangle the holdouts.”
Trump can change the outcome in Republican primaries with his endorsements, but Musk doesn’t wield that level of influence, Conant said.
“No matter what Elon Musk or anybody else says — and I don’t want to diminish him because I don’t think that’s fair — it’s still going to be second fiddle to President Trump,” said Republican West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.
BBC (“Musk urges Americans to tell lawmakers to ‘kill the bill’“):
Elon Musk hit out at US President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending bill again on Wednesday, calling on Americans to tell their representatives in Washington to “kill the bill”.
[…]
Musk left the administration abruptly last week after 129 days working to cut costs with his team, known as Doge. The comments mark his first public disagreement with Trump since leaving government, after having previously called the plan “disappointing”.
Soon after Musk’s tweet on Wednesday, the White House sent out a “myth buster” statement, calling any assertion that the bill would lead to higher deficits a “hoax”.
“By every honest metric, President Donald J Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill dramatically improves the fiscal trajectory of the United States and unleashes an era of unprecedented economic growth,” the statement reads.
It may well be that Musk genuinely believed that the DOGE effort was about finding waste and getting a bloated budget down to size. The Project 2025 types, though, simply wanted to break the government and punish their enemies. I’m not sure President Trump cares much one way or the other.
I read the title and first thought, wow, what does Musk have against the Better Business Bureau?
@Grumpy realist: And here I was thinking Build Back Better
@Grumpy realist: Same.
We live in the most unserious timeline. I can’t think of any instance where the word beautiful should be included in the title of any serious legislation.
I reiterate, it takes one to know one.
Even a stopped clock …
No “fiscal hawk” can be taken seriously when they don’t object to tax cuts, farm aid necessitated by idiotic (and illegal) tariffs, and $45 M birthday parades. With Trump and Musk you have two ego maniacs who, as Don Rumsfeld would have put it, “don’t know what they don’t know,” and don’t care about the consequences of what they do. Musk is pouting because his quarter of a billion dollar investment in Trump didn’t include him being able to name the director of NASA and forcing the FAA to use Star Link.
I can’t think of anything in musk’s background or in his role as trump’s doge hitman that reflects someone committed to rooting out government waste, improving government efficiency, or controlling federal budget deficits.
He did do the bidding of the Project 2025 types who simply want to break the government by hobbling congressionally approved programs that they don’t like. At the same time, he racked up personal wins as oversight and regulatory hurdles to his companies were diminished.
But he didn’t get everything he wanted, and maybe he was butthurt. As widely reported, including here in Axios,
More to the point,
Well stated just before me by @Charley in Cleveland:
The right-wing tech guys are all so insecure. They can only be failed and have to be told that 24/7. Musk is going to go into some crazy rehab and emerge a weepy warrior-style man who is above politics and for Truth and yet, weirdly, will have the same dumb politics.
Any plane to cut the deficit that does not raise taxes (particularly on the top 5th) is not a deficit cutting plan. It’s a wealth transfer.
This is a conundrum. What’s a narcissist to do when he is publicly shamed by another narcissist who happens to be the richest man in the world who also happens to be an easily offended drug user?
James: “It may well be that Musk genuinely believed that the DOGE effort was about finding waste and getting a bloated budget down to size. ”
James, it may well be that Musk is actually the Second Coming of Christ, but I’ll rank that at the same level of likelihood.
This was not an effort which degenerated, but from the start was a lying, dishonest fraudulent and illegal looting and pillaging operation.
@Rick DeMent: “Any plane to cut the deficit that does not raise taxes (particularly on the top 5th) is not a deficit cutting plan. It’s a wealth transfer.”
And this is not novel. I remember the Reagan, Dubya and Trump I administrations doing the same thing.
It’s SOP.
Let them fight!
@becca:
Ketamine bender?
@Barry:
What did W say? “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me four times ..”
@Grumpy realist: Yup. I just assumed that Starlink or Telsa had gotten BBB complaints.
@Grumpy realist: Yup. I just assumed that Starlink or Tesla had gotten BBB complaints.
Still, it was tacky of Musk to say that part out loud like that. In other circumstances, Trump’s flak should have just attributed it to sour grapes by Musk over not being recommissioned to DOGE. In fact, a smart flak might have done that anyway.
Only the best…
It’s a shame that duels have fallen out of favor.
from the WSJ piece:
Can anyone tell me why Democrats have not branded the Republican “Big Beautiful Bill” as something like the ‘Big Billionaires Bill?’ Or the ‘Bloated Billionaires Bill?’
Is it because they don’t want to offend their own billionaire donor class?
Is it because Chuck Schumer is busy writing an 8-point letter detailing objections to the BBB?
Is it because they don’t know how to brand, define, and message?
I’ll take “Continue to Discuss Biden’s Age” for $800, Alex.
Schumer is now calling it the “Well, We’re All Going To Die Act”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/schumer-dubs-trumps-bill-well-were-all-going-to-die-act/2025/06/04/34ed1af7-dbf8-4fc9-b4be-60c0259baf9c_video.html
I believe he is still crafting his 8 strong questions about the bill.
@al Ameda:
Sounds fine to me. I’ll also go with Democrats are no less in favor of billionaire donor-class tax cuts than the GOP are. They just don’t want them paid for by cuts to the safety net. I, too, am not fond of safety net cuts, but that’s what the people seem to have voted for. Que sera sera.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I agree completely.
I’ll tell you what, I’ve been blaming the voters for quite some time now. In my opinion, by 2019 voters used up all the non-trivial excuses for the sh** that’s falling from the sky now. They knew exactly what Trump was all about – the dishonesty, the cruelty, the malignant character – and they, 77 million voters, brought him back for a 2nd swim in his cesspool. And Congress? Please. These Representatives and Senators weren’t shuttled in from Mars or Galaxy-9, We the people/voters put these people there.
Honestly, if we want better outcomes we surely need better voters.