Tangle (10:23)
All right, let's get into what the right is saying now. The right is mixed on Musk's comments, with many agreeing with his points about the bill but questioning his delivery. Some criticize Musk for how he's handled his departure from the administration. Others say Musk's tenure accomplished little except tarnishing his own image. In Fox News, David Marcus wrote Musk vs. Maga on the Big Beautiful Bill, but the GOP needs both. Last week there were rumblings that Elon Musk had reservations about President Donald Trump's so called Big Beautiful bill. This week, Musk, shall we say, clarified his position, calling the legislation a disgusting abomination, Marcus said. And yes, his concerns that this bill now in the Senate could balloon the national debt, though disputed by the White House, are not particularly far fetched. The problem for those like Musk who want to see the bill revamped to cut the debt is not just that GOP margins in Congress are as narrow as a coin slot. It's that Trump's base, the only group of people he consistently pleases, like the bill, and they like it a lot. This is a real impasse between Musk and Trump's base, and Musk has proven to be a very valuable ally, not just for Trump, but for the GOP in general. Musk also has the money needed to bankroll any campaign he chooses to and conversely, to use that money to primary those Republicans he deems ineffective on the debt, a threat he made explicit this week, Marcus wrote. Money carries a lot of water, but at the end of the day, if you are a candidate for Congress in a GOP primary, what do you want more, a blank check from Elon Musk or an endorsement from Donald Trump? For now, obviously the latter. In town hall, Matt Vespa called Musk's comments, quote, totally unnecessary. As the budget reconciliation battle rages on the Hill, Elon Musk, who has left his position as senior adviser to President Trump, has broken his silence about the big, beautiful bill. He hates it, vespa said. It was unnecessary. And part of me thinks the billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla CEO is venting over congressional Republicans, not codifying the cuts he and the Department of Government efficiency highlighted for months. However, that cannot be done through reconciliation. No doubt that is disappointing, but let's not nuke a bill that accomplishes what most Republicans want. It makes the Trump tax cuts permanent and provides a mountain of cash for border security and immigration measures. It's not perfect. Nothing is from D.C. but remember the old saying, perfect is the enemy of good, vespa wrote. Trump also trained his fire on one Republican who is bound to give us agita in the Senate. Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky who very much seems at peace with slapping working families with a massive tax hike if this bill fails. In National Review, Jeffrey Blahar asked, what did Elon Musk actually accomplish except his own downfall? One can only imagine how unhappy the Trump administration is with this, especially since several Senate lawmakers have used the opportunity afforded by Elon's apostasy to poke their heads out from behind his protective skirt and chip in with their own reservations, blair said. Perhaps Trump may just let Elon stew online rather than provoke a MAGA civil war. Perhaps not. Regardless of whether fireworks follow, this was always the way the story was going to end. There is something extremely depressing about this denouement. Musk entered the MAGA orbit with high hopes vaingloriously high, perhaps, but born of a genuine commitment to fixing inefficiencies. And he departs it, leaving little but wreckage behind him. Not only has Doge's fizzle out muted the idea of government spending reform for the foreseeable future, Musk has mortgaged his own public reputation and future prospects for little perceptible gain, blair wrote. Although he is distancing himself from Trump now, his original progressive fans will forever hold him as the man who got Trump elected, partly responsible for what Trump does regardless. Alright, let's move on to what the left is saying. The left says that Musk leaves the government in worse shape than he found it. Some suggest his criticisms of the reconciliation bill are driven by self interest. Others say Musk will continue to exert influence on the administration. The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board wrote, Elon Musk is putting the Doge chainsaw down, but the damage has been done. Doge was supposed to weed out waste, fraud and abuse, but instead turn into a wasteful, fraudulent and abusive exercise. Musk did grave damage while finding little to no savings and making the government more inefficient, the board said. Initially, Musk promised to slash $2 trillion in spending but quickly lowered that estimate to $1 trillion. In the end, after all the chainsaw waving, he only cut $160 billion. That paltry sum, by federal standards, about 2.3% of the nearly $7 trillion budget doesn't include the 135 billion in estimated severance costs to taxpayers or the litigation fees and lost tax collection from cuts to the IRS staff. Musk's dismantling of foreign aid programs through the U.S. agency for International Development has already led to an estimated 300,000 deaths, most of them children. More than 250,000 federal employees have been fired or bought out, according to one estimate, leaving many to battle mental health and stress issues. More than 8,500 and 10,000 grants were terminated with little to no thought of the repercussions, the board wrote. Perhaps more consequential is the slashing of jobs and more than $2.6 billion in contracts at the National Institutes of Health, upending medical research and clinical trials aimed at finding cures for diseases like Alzheimer's cancer and aids. In Slate, Jim Newell said Musk picked the most vapid criticism of Trump's bill. Musk's sneak attack ultimately reinforces why it's a relief that he's no longer directly involved in government and why he should continue to be pushed as far as way as possible. His criticism of it as a pork filled bill is an especially unusual approach. Pork is a catch all word used to describe wasteful spending, often doled out to special interest groups, newell wrote. But pork is not the issue with the bill. In dollars and cents, the bill cuts taxes to the tune of 3.7 trillion over the next 10 years and cuts spending $1.3 trillion, increasing the deficit by 2.4 trillion. The biggest spending measures in the bill are defense upgrades and a massive boost for border security and internal immigration enforcement. Things Musk should like if Musk is crying pork for the same reason most people do to try to kill a bill they dislike for any old reason, then why does he want to kill it? There's been some reporting to back up House Speaker Mike Johnson's speculation that the loss of electric vehicle tax credits has consumed Musk, Newell said. Even if you support electric vehicle tax incentives, it's a problem that a guy who doesn't really understand what's going on has this much power. It's a problem that because of his net worth and lack of filter, he can get in a momentary snit, burp out an angry post and send Washington scurrying. In the Daily Beast, Paul Waldman suggested Elon Musk isn't really leaving the White House. To some, it seems Musk is moving on from his role as one of the main and most polarizing characters in our current political drama. It might be pressure from shareholders, or it might be the shock of what happened last month in Wisconsin. Musk invested millions of dollars in the hope of electing a conservative to the state Supreme Court, and he put his personal brand on the line in public appearances. His candidate lost badly, and he may have come to the realization that voters don't really like him, waldman wrote. But don't think Musk is done with exercising his considerable influence over our government and the people who work in it. He will be a dangerous force in our politics for the foreseeable future. Does anyone really think he'll sit on the sidelines in the next election when his billions could ensure another friendly executive branch? He, his people and his interests have burrowed deeply into the government, and he has too much at stake to let their clout wash away or be uprooted, waldman said. Furthermore, muskism as a governing philosophy, the assumption that just about everything government does is bad and should be undermined, is still in force. Republicans have adopted it as a kind of berserker version of their traditional small government conservatism. All right, and with that, I'm going to hand it over to Isaac for his take and the reader question.
