… Elon Musk addressed the issue of Democrats calling him ‘President Musk’: “The political and legacy media puppets all got their new instructions yesterday and are now parroting the same message to drive a wedge between Trump and me. They will fail.” … It’s not really up to Musk whether this will fail. If it bothers Trump enough, Musk won’t be able to stop the blowback from Trump. We have seen this before with Kari Lake, Steve Bannon, Boris Epshteyn, Corey Lewandowski, Brad Parscale, Kevin Roberts (Heritage) and so many others. An endless list. When they overstay their welcome, overstep the mark, and start to outshine the star of this demented reality show, Trump is pretty ruthless on how he handles those situations. … It is only a matter of time before the Trump-Musk alliance unravels. And it will be fun to watch when it does
… At 2:22 PM, a sweaty and stressed-out looking Mike Johnson emerged from his meeting with House Republicans and declared: "We have a unified Republican conference. There's a unanimous agreement in the room that we need to move forward. I will not telegraph to you the specific details of that yet...I expect that we will be proceeding forward. We will not have a government shutdown." … The House was finally able to pass the 3rd Edition of the Mini-Omni-CR as Mike Johnson largely surrendering to Democrats and mostly returned to the original deal he reneged on before Musk started popping off two days ago. There are very few differences between the original deal and this one because Johnson brought Hakeem Jeffries back into negotiations, and the bill passed with Democratic support. … Every Democrat voted for the bill. 34 Republicans voted against it. … According to WaPo, these are the things that were taken out of the original deal, with the rest of it remaining the same: 1. Provision aimed at ensuring food stamps are replenished for Americans whose benefits are stolen. Possibly as many as 300K affected, per CBPP. 2. A series of changes to the operations of pharmacy benefit managers — middlemen in the medicine business that negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. (EG attempt to end “spread pricing,” where PBMs charge a health plan more for a drug than what they pay to the pharmacies that dispense it.) 3. Pay hikes for members of Congress -- 4% or so increases. 4. Transferring control of the land in Washington, D.C., where RFK Stadium sits to the District. (No new funds here) . 5. Cruz/Klobuchar bill aimed at cracking down on revenge porn/deepfakes. 6. New and expanded restrictions on U.S. investments in China. … Hakeem Jeffries: “What needed to come out of the bill came out of the bill.”
… House Democrats say they got the best deal they could’ve hoped for. One told Politico: “It was do or die time for farmers and hurricane victims.” … Chuck Schumer has reportedly agreed to the new bill on behalf of Democrats in the Senate and President Biden will sign it. … The White House: "While it does not include everything we sought, it includes disaster relief that the President requested for the communities recovering from the storm, eliminates the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires, and would ensure that the government can continue to operate at full capacity." … Johnson, Trump and Musk are all also saying they are happy with the final deal. … So everyone is declaring victory. Welcome to DC, where despite all the Trump mania, some things still haven’t changed. … Rand Paul put the blame squarely on Trump for blowing up the original CR negotiations: “Getting rid of the debt ceiling seems to be fiscally irresponsible. It’s a little bit late in the game to be putting debt ceiling on this anyway.” … Lindsey Graham says that Republicans were simply going to have to work with Democrats whether they liked it or not: “The idea that you can write a bill that doesn’t have to get some bipartisan support ignores the situation on the ground. I am convinced Mike Johnson cannot get every Republican to vote for a package, and he’s going to have to some way find some Democrats.” … But Mike Johnson comes out of this a broken man. … Mike Lee on Fox: “I don’t think the Speaker is going to remain in power. We need new bold leadership, outside leadership, and I think it needs to be either Vivek Ramaswamy or Elon Musk.” … Right-wing Breitbart is reporting that up to 25 House Republicans are prepared to vote against Mike Johnson for Speaker on January 3. That is much more than ever voted against Kevin McCarthy. … Hakeem Jeffries was asked if Democrats are going to bail out Mike Johnson in the Speaker’s election if he faces a challenge from the far-right: “No.” … Mitt Romney told HuffPost though that he thinks when push comes to shove, Democrats will end up voting for Mike Johnson if it comes down to a choice between him or someone like Jim Jordan: “There may be an effort to blow everything up. But I don’t think - I think Democrats are smarter than that. They’d give him support.” … Rep. Thomas Massie to Breitbart reporter after leaving Mike Johnson’s office: “This is the first time in my life I have nothing to say.” Massie said yesterday he won’t vote for Johnson. Must’ve been a fun meeting. … Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Matt Boyle to Steve Bannon: “What we are seeing is Trump is beginning to turn on Mike Johnson.” … Tommy Tuberville: “We should have done this two months ago. Mike Johnson has been riding around on airplanes with Trump, going places, doing speeches with the president. Get back here and do your damn job! We do things half-assed up here. Don’t worry about your Speakership - do your job!” … Johnson backed out of his scheduled appearance at Charlie Kirk’s big AmFest event in Arizona tomorrow because he knew he was about to get booed off stage. The first time his name was mentioned at the event today, the crowd erupted in boos. Probably the first smart move he’s made in months to back out of that. … MAGA influencer Catturd: “I’ll take one Elon Musk over about 99% of the worthless Congress.” … Steve Bannon today at that AmFest event in Arizona: “Trump is a kind-hearted, good man. Me? I’m not. I want real retribution. I’m going after the criminal conspiracy that tried to bankrupt, imprison, and assassinate Trump. We’ll investigate, prosecute, and put the guilty in prison where they belong.” … Bannon will not be appointed to anything in this administration. Trump doesn’t want Bannon anywhere near him. He will just yell and threaten at conferences. … Politico asked Massie if he was concerned about Trump’s threats to primary people who opposed him on this last night: “It’s a real threat for some people, but Chip Roy can survive it. I can survive it. (Trump’s endorsement) will move the needle 20 points in a race. But if you were going to win 80-20 percent you will be ok.” … Mitch McConnell to Fox: “I don't care to count how many times I've reminded our colleagues and our House counterparts how horrible it is to shut the government down. And how foolish it is to bet your own side won't get the blame for it. Recent history doesn't leave a whole lot of room for interpretation on that one. When you try to use normal government function as a bargaining chip, you pay a political price.” … Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) on what happened last night: “Self-promoting fools on our side are playing political football with the American people.” He declined to name names. … Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN): “We need to slow down so we can get there a little faster.” … Brit Hume: “Speaker Johnson is getting the blame for the failure of the bills to keep the government open. But how about the team of Trump, Musk & Co? They shot down the first bill. Too full of pork, they said. They demanded a streamlined bill. Johnson produced one and put it on the floor. It failed miserably, with three dozen House Republicans voting against it. Way to go guys.” … When you’ve lost Steve Doocy … Rep. John James (R-MI) blamed Democrats on Fox & Friends this morning for the CR failing yesterday because they voted against the bill along with 38 Republicans. Doocy responded: “Congressman, the Democrats didn’t vote for it because the Republicans took all the stuff that the Democrats wanted out of it!” … Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY): “I hate to say this in public, but this is a chess game. The Speaker is in a finesse game, this isn’t a bludgeon game. Trump can sit on Truth Social all day, but that didn’t persuade 38 Members of Congress.” … Remember the good old days when Congress considered itself a separate, co-equal branch of government? Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA): “House Republicans need to get onboard with Trump. Our role is really to be more of a supportive Board of Directors.” James Madison is rolling over in his grave. … The Republican strategy after the previous two plans failed was to split up the package into separate bills, with provisions for farmers (that Republicans wanted) attached to the CR, disaster relief (for almost all Republican districts but Dems strongly supported) in a separate bill, and perhaps other things packaged in a third. … But it was all voted on at the same time, so it made so difference whatsoever. Republicans get to say that technically they did each as a separate bill, which is what MAGA and Musk has been screaming for. But it was all voted on together, so once again style over substance. The MAGA brand. … But the problem with that is that Trump wanted one thing and one thing badly - no debt ceiling. And the new plan does not give him that. So no matter how Trump tries to spin this by declaring victory like he usually does after losing, any end result that leaves the debt ceiling is place is a defeat for Trump because it makes it that much harder to get his tax cuts through next year. … Sen Appropriations Chair Patty Murray: “We’re not going to let Elon Musk run the government. Put simply, we should not let an unelected billionaire rip away research for pediatric cancer so he can get a tax cut or tear down policies that help America outcompete China because it could hurt his bottom line.” … But they did take out a law banning cyber/internet revenge porn. So Elon accomplished that. … Sen Chris Murphy (D-CT): “Why did Elon Musk not oppose the defense bill, which is loaded with lots of spending, but opposed the continuing resolution? Maybe because his bread is buttered in the defense bill. That's where there are programs that help his businesses and pad his profits." … Meanwhile, in the middle of the night, Musk endorsed Germany’s neo-Nazi Party: ... |
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