Washington – The creaky end of the Alliance of President Trump with Elon Musk increases the pressure on the White House on his signature legislation known as “One Big Beau Bill Act” – a bill under a meticulous examination of the Senate that Musk wants to kill on his price, but which Trump considers as essential to the success of his presidency.
The bill faces solid winds among the senators through the republican spectrum, including tax curators who say that it authorizes unsustainable expenses, as well as moderates who fear the consequences of compensation for expensive tax alternatives in the bill with abrupt reductions in Medicaid.
Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican among those who seek to reduce spending on the bill, told NPR this week that he had “no chance of passing” the Senate in its current form.
“It is easy to be the parent who says:” We are going to go to Disney World “. It is difficult to be the parent who says, “Yes, but we cannot afford it,” Johnson told journalists on Friday in Capitol Hill. “To access yes, I need a commitment to return to a level of reasonable pre-countryic expenses.”
Trump’s relationship with Musk, the richest man in the world and the largest republican donor in the 2024 presidential campaign, broke Thursday in an exchange of public insults between the two men. After leaving his role in the administration last week, where he was responsible for reducing federal spending and government waste, Musk sounded on the bill as an “abomination” which would cause national debt.
Trump replied by suggesting that Musk opposed the legislation because he includes reductions in energy tax credits that have benefited Tesla, Musk’s Electric Vehicle Company. The billionaire entrepreneur can also be angry, said Trump because his recommendation to lead NASA has been rejected – an important position for SpaceX, another musk company.
These comments sparked a musk online tirade which claimed the credit for Trump’s electoral victory and accused the president of the links with the late Jeffrey Epstein, a notorious sex offender.
“Without me, Trump would have lost the elections, the DEMS would control the room and the Republicans are 51 to 49 years old in the Senate,” wrote Musk on X, his social media platform. “Such ingratitude.”
Musk contributed more than $ 280 million to Trump and other Republicans during the 2024 presidential campaign. But his mandate in the White House reached a high cost. Tesla’s profits fell 71% in the first three months of the year, with reputation rankings showing an equally precipitated drop among consumers. Only Thursday, when his quarrel with Trump increased, the course of Tesla’s action dropped by 14%.
“I don’t even think of Elon,” Trump told Dana Bash de CNN in a telephone interview on Friday. “He has a problem. The poor guy has a problem.”
Musk was also quieter on Friday, concentrating his activity on social networks on his businesses, a sign that the two men see mutual destruction in the fallout from their quarrel.
But the source of their quarrel – the bill – remains on thin ice.
The Office of the Budget of the Non-Supportaire Congress estimates that the bill could add 2.4 billions of dollars to annual deficits during the next decade and bring 10.9 million people to lose their health insurance, which prompted GOP senators like Shelley Moore Capito of Virginie-Western, where 28% of the state of state is registered in Medicaid, to express their concerns.
But the head of majority in the Senate, John Thune (RS.D.), told journalists that the Caucus was open to the exploration of reductions from another popular health program – Medicare, for Americans aged 65 and over – if it leads to a reduction in the overall cost of the bill.
“The objective, as you know, has been to treat waste, fraud, abuses within Medicaid and, but at the moment, we are open to the suggestions that people have on other areas where there is, you clearly know the waste, fraud and abuses that can be rooted in any government program,” Thune said during a press conference.
When asked if the Medicare cuts are on the table, Thune replied: “I think everything we can do who is waste, fraud and abuses are open to discussions.”
Chamber Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, defended the bill against Musk’s attacks on Friday and said his calls to kill the bill were a “surprise”.
“I do not chat with Elon on how to build rockets,” said Johnson. “I wish he does not dispute with me about how to create legislation.”
Johnson said that his goal was to have independence legislation adopted, before legislators started to go home for a series of long summer corners.
But there are other reasons for the deadline. The Treasury Department provides that the country may risk default unless the congress increases the debt ceiling by August. And the tax reductions adopted in 2017, under the first Trump administration, should expire at the end of this year, which made a tax increase of 68% warn if the bill fails.
