Co-President Elon Musk has weighed in on the massive budget bill House Republicans passed last week, and despite it doing many things that right-wingers love—like slashing Medicaid and cutting food assistance—the world’s richest man is not pleased.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk told CBS News.
Musk oversees the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which intends to shrink the government, no matter the harm that causes. But the House GOP’s bill would increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. And it would do all that damage for the purpose of making the rich even richer.
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both,” Musk added, referring to the bill’s cringe-worthy name: the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."
President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speak to reporters from a Tesla parked on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11.
The bill’s deficit increase is spooking investors, who are slowing down their purchases of U.S. bonds as they view the country’s massive debt load to be a riskier investment. To entice investors to purchase bonds, the Treasury Department has had to increase the interest rate the bonds earn, which leads to higher borrowing costs for the country that are expected to, in turn, increase the deficit even more.
“The fact that lawmakers passed this bill less than a week after America’s latest credit downgrade and yet another worrying Treasury auction is especially maddening,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told CNN. “Will nothing wake our leaders up to the need to take our debt challenges seriously?”
The fact that Musk is breaking with President Donald Trump, who strongly supports the bill, is yet another sign that their relationship is fraying.
The Trump administration has recently pushed Musk to the sidelines, likely due to backlash among the American electorate.
Polling shows that Musk's efforts to cut the federal budget through DOGE have been unpopular. Just 41% of registered voters held a positive view of the effort as of March, according to an NBC News poll. Musk himself is even more unpopular. As of Wednesday morning, just 39% of Americans have a favorable opinion of him, according to a polling average from elections analyst Nate Silver.
Musk’s unpopularity is spilling over to his companies. Sales of Tesla vehicles have plummeted. And even he seems to understand that his political endeavors are hurting his bottom line, given that he now plans to cut back his political spending.
All that to say, even though Musk is panning the legislation, don't expect that to scare GOP lawmakers into voting against it.
A number of House Republicans who claimed to care about budget deficits voted for the bill last week, caving to demands from Dear Leader. And while some Senate Republicans are now crowing about the deficit, don’t bet on them to hold the line.
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