Musk pressure campaign on CR highlights his growing influence

Elon Musk’s aggressive push against a stopgap measure to prevent a government shutdown received mixed reactions from House Republicans, even as it seemingly ended in success with President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance announcing their own opposition to the measure.

Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-leaders of Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), fired off a series of posts online Wednesday railing against the more than 1,500-page stopgap spending deal released just days ahead of the Dec. 20 shutdown deadline.

The tech entrepreneurs argued the deal goes against the goals of their DOGE panel, which is focused on reducing government spending and bureaucracy.

Amid their barrage of opposition came a flurry of House Republicans echoing their concerns over the measure, and ultimately Trump and Vance came out against the continuing resolution (CR) by Wednesday afternoon. Trump and Vance called for the House to move a "clean" CR paired with a measure to raise the debt ceiling.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is now weighing plan B options amid the pressure campaign and seems likely to move toward the president-elect's plan.

One GOP lawmaker described Musk and Ramaswamy as “influential voices” on Capitol Hill when asked about their sway over a........

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