The Republican messages of joy for having had an abortion that they considered favorable to the Democrats have resounded again with a roar on the social network also one of the most powerful on the current American political scene. The gestures of genuflection from the Republican bench to the magnate, and his permanent shadow, followed one another this Thursday like a waterfall while the Government was on the brink of closure, in theory at midnight this Friday if no solution was found, due to being deprived of the necessary funds. to meet their financial obligations. A closure of the Administration means, among other things, not paying the military’s salary and Social Security checks.
The Republicans of the House of Representatives, however, overcame the blockade early this Thursday night with a plan B to avoid the closure of the Administration, which is scheduled to be voted on today. The alternative bill, called the US Relief Act, includes a three-month extension of government funding and a two-year suspension of the debt limit — the amount of money the federal government can borrow. , with authorization from Congress, to meet its financial obligations. The president-elect imposed on Wednesday the modification of the debt limit as a condition for any agreement.
However, with 32 days left until Trump’s inauguration, it allows us to imagine what his performance will be in the Republican Administration. Not only as co-director, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, of the , an organization in theory outside the Cabinet, but as a true confidant of the president. It is enough to take a look at social networks to see the homage that the Republican caucus is paying him since he attacked the bill on Wednesday, dragging Trump himself and, by extension, the majority of his party’s congressmen.
“Your elected representatives have listened to you and now the terrible law is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed! “VOX POPULI, VOX DEI,” Musk wrote this Thursday on his social network. Trump has tried to qualify the magnate’s excessive prominence, highlighting that they had discussed their views on the provisional financing agreement, until March 14, before Musk launched the offensive on X on Wednesday. Despite the nuances, the power of the technology entrepreneur has been revealed omnipresently. “So much power, in so many pillars of society [negocios, medios de comunicación y política]is unprecedented. Musk yesterday [por el miércoles]single-handedly, with his voice amplified by the bombardment of dozens of tweets on X throughout the day, sank a 1,547-page bipartisan spending bill,” the portal recalled this Thursday. Axios.
The speaker of the House of Representatives, also a Republican Mike Johnson, had presented on Tuesday night the provisional financing agreement, negotiated with both parties, which included items such as 100,000 million dollars in aid for natural disasters and another 10,000 in economic assistance for farmers. It also provided for the first pay raise for legislators since 2009. In the wake of Musk’s tweets, Trump’s rejection and his number twoVice President-elect JD Vance, who considered that the text obeyed Democratic interests, put the finishing touches on the law. The presidential tandem asked the Republicans to increase the debt limit or ceiling, which they have finally ended up doing, as part of the negotiations to keep the Government running, an anathema for conservatives.
—in theory one more of the recurring partisan tug-of-war when it comes to financing the Government—however, throws up an unprecedented scenario of Trump’s second term. A control derived from the 260 million that he invested in the Republican’s campaign, and from the global speaker of perfect circle of his influence.
Eliminate the debt ceiling
After proposing to raise the debt ceiling on Wednesday (“not great, but we prefer to do it on the clock [que marca el final de mandato] of Biden,” Trump wrote on social media), the president-elect went further this Thursday, betting on eliminating him completely in a telephone interview with NBC News. “It would be the smartest thing I could do.” [el Congreso]. “I would totally support it,” he said, a complete twist in the Republican discourse. Finally, the compromise solution reached provides for its suspension for two years.
The debt ceiling has traditionally been a negotiating tool when torpedoing rival party projects or obtaining counterparties in the adoption of the budget. But the arguments that were previously spread among groups of Congress, or through probe balloons in the traditional media, now find immediate reaction on the networks. The new script of American politics closely follows Musk, who provoked “an instant and overwhelming response,” according to the rating of Axioson the Republican bench. By the grace of X, the platform on which Musk’s tweet urged to reject the bill has received 37 million visits. “My phone wouldn’t stop ringing,” Republican Representative Andy Barr said this Thursday. “The people who elected us are listening to Elon Musk.”
“Republicans must BE SMART and TOUGH,” Trump and Vance said in a statement late Wednesday. “If the Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, IT’S A FLAT.” The two raised the ante with their proposal to raise the debt ceiling, while Johnson, whose continuity as speaker of the House of Representatives seemed assured thanks to Republican control, packed his bags.
Behind the scenes, and in the midst of the bombardment of slogans, Musk showed off his intimacy with the president-elect by sitting at the dinner table that he offered on the same Wednesday night to his technological rival, Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, and his fiancée at Mar-a-Lago, . If the Government shuts down, Musk can take credit or blame, but for now, at least on paper, he remains a private citizen… in an Administration that has not yet begun.
