You Can’t Tell Who’s In Charge Among Trump, Musk or Congressional Leaders
From all that Donald Trump has said in these weeks leading to inauguration, he was intent on getting an early start on his programs with loyal appointees and control of all three governmental branches. In fact, he acknowledged coming across as demanding to underscore that he wanted to enter the White House without anything to derail his prime objectives.
In that vein, he has been bullying with Senate confirmation practices for his most challenging appointees, disdainful of ethics and procedural delays, insistent on leaning on foreign leaders to settle their wars and conflicts, and loose about any need to adhere to legal or constitutional norms.
That hope for a ready stage for a Trump triumphal entry on Jan. 20 already has been dashed with a forced, intra-party budget fight that has left the country facing a partial government shutdown on the holiday week — all because Trump and billionaire buddy Elon Musk want to wring last-minute political points from the outgoing Congress.
Instead, Trump now faces open rebellion among a sizable number of congressional Republicans, ridicule from Democrats, and a full slate of obvious problems resulting from the closing of many non-emergency government services. Expecting that TSA, air controllers, and airport workers will show up to work without pay during the nation’s traditionally most busy travel week, for example, sounds like a bad bet since it will undoubtably mean longer waits and rising anger. A shutdown will prove expensive, wasteful of time and effort, and solve exactly no public problems.
Picking a last-minute fight to eliminate the nation’s debt ceiling laws and try to tag it as part of the Joe Biden administration is fooling exactly no one. And insisting that money approved in a bipartisan bill that aided hurricane victims, farmers hit by storms, and cancer research for children as unnecessary Democratic pork doesn’t seem to be sticking.
It was not clear that Republicans third escape plan to force separate votes on three months of continuing spending as is, and separate votes on hurricane and farmer aid and defying Trump’s demand for debt ceiling elimination, would pass without Democratic votes. We should just buckle up for barb trading over blame for a shutdown that needn’t have happened.
Seeking Clues to Resolution
Beyond the immediate, what Trump and Musk have accomplished in this egoistic challenge to Congress is to set a tone for an incoming administration that borders on incompetence and chaos, with supporters and opponents agreeing that they can’t tell who’s in charge among Trump, Musk or congressional leaders. There can be no negotiated settlements if no one is clear about who is signing off on any deal.
Musk wants spending and regulations cut. Trump wants to spend more, just on different things, like rounding up migrants and making tax cuts permanent that benefit the nation’s wealthiest. Musk wanted the House bipartisan budget “continuing resolution” dumped because it was more spending; Trump wanted to add elimination of the debt ceiling to avoid having to ask for it later, when he gets the tax cuts and spending he wants.
Members of Congress don’t want to be told what to do, and a higher-than-expected number of the most conservative think that even a stripped-down version of the budget bill spends too much money. It was a numerical certainty even before the shutdown brouhaha broke out on Thursday that Speaker Mike Johnson would need the votes of Democrats, and those votes will not be forthcoming for throwing out everything that Democrats thought would be in the package. By offending everyone, Johnson should be making plans for how he will enjoy his post-Speakership years.
Trump is getting a double slap. He is not the dictator of legislation, and his ideas about spending still run afoul of his most conservative party members. Plus, the talk of an unofficial President Elon Musk can only be irksome to him. Musk is not even being clear about what should be in the bill, just what should not be included.
Meanwhile, this whole incident is over a three-month extension. We will be back here shortly, with absolutely no trust for any deal-making.
Meanwhile, the very people who demeaned the “deep state,” who insist on populism over expertise and experience, are showing they don’t know how to drive the governmental car. They are bad at it. They certainly seem not to care about the effect on you and me, who depend on government services.
It needn’t have happened. It can still be fixed, with a modicum of embarrassment.
Maybe voters can keep that in their heads when they next go to the polls.
