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[lemon10]

“This bill should not pass,” Musk wrote Wednesday morning in a statement on X, with an additional post describing the document as a “piece of pork.”

Who knows honestly. Musk said he doesn't want it to pass because he hates pork, and given his stated desire to cut trillions off the budget that might even be true.
Probably though its just to make biden look bad.
---
Sigh, looks like we might be looking forwards to 4 years of Musk being in control instead of 4 years of Trump or Vance.
Pro: He isn't a religious Fanatic like Vance.
Con: Dude seems really keen on dismantling the government.

Honestly not sure if I should be more worried about a Vance presidency or Musk presidency.

[Il Palazzo]

Huh. Of all the things Don't Look Up satirised, I thought Musk controlling the government was too much of a stretch.

[McTraveller]

I am starting to have a nagging suspicion that Musk is truly bent on world domination. He's basically controlling the US government - he can puppet both the executive and legislative branches apparently. He has an audience with Putin. Apparently he is also courting folks in the UK government.

That aside, the thing that gets me with the incoming administration is that they are basically already acting like they are in charge, and people are letting them get away with it. They are also doing it by being bullies, not by being nice. I mean it's "do it our way, or we'll get you kicked out of office."

The CR thing is also hilarious. "Oh let's not do this bill because it has stuff we don't like in it. But also only pass it if you increase the debt ceiling on the current administration's timeline, because of course they'll blame the higher debt on this administration and not ours because the internet really can't remember that we were being assholes about it and we think that people will just think because it's done in this calendar period and not based on our influence we won't get attributed with it." Sad part is, for many constituents, that is probably true.

[Robot Parade Leader]

I don't understand anything

I'll say again. Musk is just becoming the government isn't he?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rand-paul-suggests-replacing-mike-164218084.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Holy crap did he basically buy or somehow take over the government through threat to congress? I have no idea what to think of that.

"The national debt is too high" but https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-threatens-government-shutdown-unless-170325353.html

I don't think I've ever heard of this before. Trump isn't even sworn in yet by over a month.

[Frumple]

Honestly not sure if I should be more worried about a Vance presidency or Musk presidency.

It's hard to say which'd be worse -- on the one hand, vance is probably more competent and somehow probably even worse of a human being than musk.

On the other, musk's still a complete shitstain and a known drug abuser... the highest office being ran by folks high on something just makes the nazi comparisons that much more stark. The bright side, he's an incompetent piece of shit when it comes to basically anything the presidency could actually do, so.

Bit of a six of one, half dozen of the other situation. You'd probably be worried about it roughly the same, just in different ways

[hector13]

Would Musk even be allowed to have the Speaker position, considering it’s in the line of succession for the presidency, and he’s not a native-born American?

[Lord Shonus]

That requirement only matters for VP. Everybody else in the line of succession just gets skipped if they're ineligible.

[Robot Parade Leader]

[Edit because Shonus knows I guess]. Can I be the speaker of the house, despite the fact that I am stupid and will get actual orange cheeto cheese dust on whatever documents they give me? I won't know what I'm doing more than half the time at best. That's on a good day.

Because now I'm not sure if he can, but I need to know if I can just cheeto dust all the important papers and computer screens.

Cheeto dust off a screen just doesn't sound the same. Simpler times. Less glass licking and more paper eating.

Do you have to be born in the U.S, to be in congress? Has this come up before?

[Folly]

If it's fine to keep highly classified documents in an unlocked unguarded bathroom, then I'm sure a little cheeto dust on our bills won't phase anybody.

[Lord Shonus]

Do you have to be born in the U.S, to be in congress? Has this come up before?

We have eighteen immigrants in Congress right now.

[Folly]

The spending bill 'Plan B' has failed.

It seems to main sticking point for Trump was raising the debt limit, which he wanted to happen now when it could be blamed on Biden, as opposed to the original bill which would put off raising the debt limit until Trump's presidency. 'Plan B' was hastily thrown together to raise the debt limit now, while also cutting some other fluff including the pay raise for congressmen. Surprisingly, even though this bill had Trump's emphatic support, a large number of Republicans opposed the increased debt limit and voted against the bill, causing it to fail.

They've still got another day to try again, but word is that 'Plan C' looks doubtful.


In other news, Canada has caved to Trump's tariff pressure and resolved to spend $1.3 billion securing their border and stopping the surge of dangerous Canadian migrants and drugs flowing into the US.

[hector13]

I’d be surprised if Trudeau even survives until October.

Anyway, Vance and Musk are blaming the Democrats for the failed bill, which required a 2/3 majority to pass.

38 Republicans voted against it, so even if it requires a simple majority it would have failed.

I am concerned in them thinking that people are really stupid enough to believe them, and also concerned that people might actually be stupid enough to believe them.

[McTraveller]

I'm surprised/impressed that many Republicans were willing to oppose the Party Line.

I really do wish people would call out Trump and Musk and their ilk for their nonsense, but I don't know who is left that could do so, since they have people so wrapped around their fingers that they will take their word over objective reality...it really is a cult, where anyone questioning the Leader is immediately threatened and put into the Out Group.

[Robot Parade Leader]

Elon didn't you wanna go to Mars? This 'Merica, not Mars. Let me point up. Mars is that way. This place is becoming less hospitable.

What happened to the guy that wanted to go to Mars? How does cutting funding for kid's cancer research .......?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-cut-child-cancer-research-223247007.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Why?

"The new stripped-down funding bill proposed on Thursday is literally throwing out the baby with the bathwater: It will exclude $190 million for the bipartisan “Give Kids a Chance” program for child cancer research. Sam Stein of The Bulwark points out that the new bill also excludes funding for research on premature labor, sickle cell disease treatment, early detection of breast and cervical cancer, the Rural Broadband Protection Act, an anti-deepfake porn bill, and more.

“F*** cancer. Especially pediatric cancer,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote on X. “These people want to punish these previous little kids to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest corporations in human history.”"

Why? Who wanted this? Who would vote for taking away children's cancer research funding? Why aren't congress members afraid of "voting against funding kid's cancer research" hurting their re election chances? I don't understand.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/government-shutdown-risk-trumps-demands-162543907.html

And so the bipartisan bill is dead from Trump / Musk? Now the new bill is dead too? Are we shutting down and if we are then why?

[Folly]

Are we shutting down and if we are then why?

Congress are usually able to get their shit together at the last second on these things, even when it looks grim. Not always, but more often than not. And with the holiday season they have extra incentive not to fuck over the entire country.

As to the question of why...well, we voted for Trump to stir things up. This is just a small taste of what we have coming.