Musk Calls BBB a ‘Disgusting Abomination’
Maybe they weren't serious about fiscal discipline after all?
WSJ (“Elon Musk Calls Trump Megabill a ‘Disgusting Abomination’“):
Former White House cost-cutting czar Elon Musk called President Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending package a “disgusting abomination,” stepping up his criticism just as the Senate is trying to quickly pass the measure and get it signed into law by July 4.
Musk’s comments are his latest sharp words about the package, which includes tax cuts as well as reductions to spending on Medicaid and food assistance. Last month, he gave new fuel to GOP critics of the Republicans’ multitrillion-dollar agenda, saying that the current measure failed to reduce the federal deficit.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,” said Musk, in comments on his X social-media platform. Musk, who left the administration last week, called the package a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill.” He issued a warning on the midterm elections: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”
The bill narrowly passed the House last month by one vote. It is now in the hands of the Senate, where some fiscal hawks, including Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida, have demanded deeper cuts.
The Senate is aiming to make changes to the bill and then send it back to the House. Backers can afford to lose no more than a handful of GOP votes in either chamber, with all Democrats expected to be opposed. Still, the White House and GOP leaders said that Musk’s statements didn’t shake their confidence in passing the measure.
Trump “already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday when asked about Musk’s social-media post. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”
The current proposal would extend expiring tax cuts for all income groups and create new tax cuts on top of that, including versions of Trump’s campaign-trail promises to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits. The bill would provide new money for border security, national defense and support for farmers. To cover some—but not all—of those costs, the bill would reduce spending on green energy tax credits, Medicaid and food assistance.
Top Republican defenders of the measure argue that the tax cuts will fuel increased economic growth to close the fiscal gap—counter to assessments by congressional scorekeepers. In all, the bill is expected to increase budget deficits by $2.7 trillion through 2034, compared with doing nothing, though a final official estimate wasn’t available.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) kept his focus on the bigger picture, saying that Republicans had campaigned on extending and expanding Trump’s tax cuts and that he intended to deliver, aiming to put the bill on the floor the week before July 4. Asked if he thought Musk’s pressure would tank the bill, Thune said he hoped Musk would further assess the bill and “come to a different conclusion.”
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.