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{"id":6609,"date":"2025-02-26T01:49:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T01:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/congressional-republicans-start-backing-away-from-musk\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T01:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T01:49:18","slug":"congressional-republicans-start-backing-away-from-musk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/congressional-republicans-start-backing-away-from-musk\/","title":{"rendered":"Congressional Republicans start backing away from Musk"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Elon Musk is beginning to wear out his welcome with congressional Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>In the House, Speaker <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/242539\" target=\"_blank\" data-person-id=\"242539\">Mike Johnson<\/a> on Tuesday shrugged off Musk\u2019s attempt to interfere with his budget plan. In the Senate, North Carolina Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/192907\" target=\"_blank\" data-person-id=\"192907\">Thom Tillis<\/a> pointedly suggested that President Donald Trump\u2019s appointees should stand up to the billionaire\u2019s whims, including his recent demand that all federal workers justify their employment. And a growing number of GOP lawmakers urged the tech mogul to show more compassion for the civil servants he\u2019s already culled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we get more Senate-confirmed leadership in the departments, I think they have to take the reins,\u201d Tillis said in response to a Blue Light News reporter\u2019s question at the Capitol.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re closer to it, they\u2019re more granular, they\u2019ll understand and be able to really implement thematically what they\u2019re trying to do with DOGE,\u201d Tillis said, \u201cbut to avoid some of the unintended outcomes that they have to go back and reverse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, some GOP members are calling on Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency to route its cuts through Congress in a process known as rescission. And even Republicans staunchly supportive of Musk\u2019s mission to shrink the government are beginning to acknowledge public pushback to the speed and sweep of DOGE\u2019s cuts.<\/p>\n<p>While Trump has given the world\u2019s richest man vast power to reshape the federal government, congressional Republicans are signaling there should be a limit to his authority. That particularly comes into play when he starts meddling in GOP leaders\u2019 already-complicated legislative agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Musk has gotten involved in complicated legislative fights before. In December, days before a government-shutdown deadline, he stoked conservative rage online about a broad bipartisan spending bill. Together with Trump and JD Vance, Musk forced Johnson to pull the bill and scramble for a new solution \u2014 irritating senior Hill Republicans who felt the billionaire was encouraging Trump to demand the impossible.<\/p>\n<p>And Musk has hinted he might wade into spending negotiations again ahead of the next government funding deadline on March 14, saying in response to a post on X that a shutdown \u201csounds great.\u201d Most Republicans are unwilling to openly flirt with a shutdown, worried they would take the political blame.<\/p>\n<p>Musk\u2019s latest attempt to insert himself into congressional business came Monday, when he waded into Johnson\u2019s high-stakes negotiations with holdouts on his budget plan for Trump\u2019s border security, energy and tax policies, replying \u201cthat sounds bad\u201d in response to an X post from Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/198835\" target=\"_blank\" data-person-id=\"198835\">Thomas Massie<\/a> (R-Ky.) that said Johnson\u2019s budget framework would add to the deficit.<\/p>\n<p>But the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2025\/02\/25\/congress\/johnson-brushes-off-musk-but-gop-budget-holdouts-stand-firm-00205925\" target=\"_blank\">speaker told POLITICO<\/a> Tuesday morning that he had \u201cno concerns\u201d that Musk\u2019s meddling would affect his whip count. By Tuesday night, the House approved the budget bill, 217-215.<\/p>\n<p>The growing pushback Musk is facing on Capitol Hill comes as courts, Cabinet secretaries and even the White House attempt to place limits on his authority as Trump\u2019s chief government cutter.<\/p>\n<p>The White House said in court papers earlier this month that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/02\/17\/doge-administrator-elon-musk-00204639\" target=\"_blank\">Musk is not DOGE\u2019s leader<\/a>, but rather a senior adviser to the president who has \u201cno actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.\u201d Several Cabinet secretaries \u2014 primarily those whose agencies are involved in national intelligence \u2014 directed their employees not to respond to Musk\u2019s mandate for federal workers to outline five things they had accomplished in the preceding week or face firing. And federal judges have blocked Musk and DOGE from accessing Americans\u2019 private information at several agencies, including the Treasury and Education departments.<\/p>\n<p>Public opinion of Musk is also souring. Polling shows Americans now hold negative views of the X owner. Republican representatives were hounded in their districts over Musk\u2019s cuts and potential GOP reductions to Medicaid and other safety-net programs.<\/p>\n<p>A representative of DOGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Congress\u2019 DOGE Caucus \u2014 lawmakers focused on cutting government spending through congressional actions \u2014 acknowledged the blowback while attempting to distance their group from Musk\u2019s department.<\/p>\n<p>Chair <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/240045\" target=\"_blank\" data-person-id=\"240045\">Aaron Bean<\/a> (R-Fla.) noted the \u201cuncomfortability of some members of Congress and the American people\u201d are showing at the \u201cspeed of which President Trump and Elon Musk are going. They\u2019ve got the pedal to the metal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But he also stood firm behind DOGE.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can tell you, it has to be done,\u201d Bean said. \u201cWe have to downsize our federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elon Musk is beginning to wear out his welcome with congressional Republicans. In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday shrugged off Musk\u2019s attempt to interfere with his budget plan. In the Senate, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis pointedly suggested that President Donald Trump\u2019s appointees should stand up to the billionaire\u2019s whims, including his recent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}