MAGA allies join DOGE pile against Speaker Johnson's funding bill

Since Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled his 1,547-page funding bill Tuesday evening, several of President-elect Donald Trump's allies have led a pressure campaign to tank the continuing resolution.

Johnson's CR has been the focal point of scrutiny from lawmakers and MAGA allies alike, with tech mogul Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy siding against the bill. With Musk and Ramaswamy jointly heading the Department of Government Efficiency in the incoming Trump administration, much of their criticism revolves around the bill's price tag.

'Nearly everyone agrees we need a smaller & more streamlined federal government, but actions speak louder than words. This is an early test. The bill should fail.'

Musk has referred to Johnson's CR as a "steal of your tax dollars" and labeled the bill "criminal."

"Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!" Musk said on his social media platform X.

"ALL government spending is taxation," Musk said. "The government either taxes you directly or, by increasing the money supply, taxes you through inflation. That means the spending bill IS the taxation bill. Very important concept to understand."

Much of the controversy surrounding the CR has also been around the time constraints. The bill was initially meant to be released before December 14, but it was repeatedly delayed until its release late Tuesday. In addition to the delays and lack of transparency, the bill text was made public just days before the December 20 deadline in order to avert a government shutdown before Christmas.

"Despite attempts to avert the typical holiday omnibus, this bill — no longer a clean CR into the new year — was loaded up with significant policy changes and spending increases, written behind closed-doors, and without proper input from the American people," Heritage Action told Blaze News in a statement.

“Members of Congress have not been given ample time to read and review this bill’s consequences," the statement continued. "Heritage Action strongly opposes this continuing resolution.”

The added pressure of the deadline, as well as the over 1,500 pages of legislation to read through, has also raised concerns. This is a far cry from Johnson's promise in September to break the Christmas omnibus tradition.

"We have broken the Christmas omni," Johnson said during a press conference. "And I have no intention of going back to that terrible tradition. So there won’t be a Christmas omnibus. ... We’re not gonna do any buses.”

In addition to Johnson's promise to do without a Christmas omnibus, leadership has known for months about the deadline, making their procrastination frustrating for lawmakers and Trump's allies.

"Congress has known about this deadline since they created it in late September," Ramaswamy said in a Wednesday post on X. "There's no reason why this couldn't have gone through the standard process, instead of being rushed to a vote right before Congressmen want to go home for the holidays. The urgency is 100% manufactured & designed to avoid serious public debate."

The CR was originally supposed to be a clean bill, including very few and relatively uncontroversial provisions like disaster relief. Instead, the 1,547-page bill tacked on hundreds of billions for provisions like stimulus for farmers, infrastructure to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a raise for members of Congress, as well as an opt-out from Obamacare.

"The bill could have easily been under 20 pages," Ramaswamy said. "Instead, there are dozens of unrelated policy items crammed into the 1,547 pages of this bill. There's no legitimate reason for them to be voted on as a package deal by a lame-duck Congress."

"We're grateful for DOGE's warm reception on Capitol Hill," Ramaswamy continued. "Nearly everyone agrees we need a smaller & more streamlined federal government, but actions speak louder than words. This is an early test. The bill should fail."

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