Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy slammed the stopgap spending deal, urging Congressional members to vote in opposition to the huge invoice if they’re “serious about government efficiency.”
Ramaswamy described the stopgap measure as “full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways and pork barrel politics,” and lamented Congress for attempting to hurry a vote so near the vacation season.
“The legislation will end up hurting many of the people it purports to help. Debt-fueled spending sprees may ‘feel good'” ‘at this time, nevertheless it’s like showering cocaine on an addict: it isn’t compassion, it is cruelty,” he wrote on the social media platform X.
Ramaswamy is the co-leader of President-elect Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), a panel tasked with making suggestions to chop authorities spending and paperwork.
In a prolonged publish on X, Ramaswamy mentioned preserving the federal government open till March 14 — the brand new shutdown deadline beneath the stopgap measure — will price $380 billion by itself.
DOGE’s co-leader Elon Musk equally got here out in opposition to the deal Tuesday night time, stating the “bill should not pass” and described it as an enormous “piece of pork.”
The opposition from Ramaswamy and Musk comes after they each spoke with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who’s going through intense criticism from a few of his GOP colleagues.
Republican critics argue the invoice is extra like a sprawling omnibus than a short lived funding measure.
Johnson mentioned Ramaswamy and Musk expressed their issues to the speaker in a textual content chain among the many three of them.
“And Vivek and I talked last night, about almost midnight, and he said, ‘Look, I get it.’ He said, ‘We understand you’re in an impossible position. Everybody knows that,'” Johnson recounted on Fox Information’s “Fox and Friends” Wednesday morning.
“Remember, guys, we still have just a razor-thin margin of Republicans. So any bill has to have Democratic votes,” Johnson mentioned. “They understand the situation. He said, ‘It’s not directed to you, Mr. Speaker, but we don’t like the spending.’ I said, ‘Guess what, fellas, I don’t either.”
The stopgap measure’s textual content, launched days earlier than the Dec. 20 shutdown deadline, goals to push the deadline and provides the following Congress and incoming president extra time to determine how the federal government ought to be funded for almost all of subsequent yr.
Ramaswamy alleged the timing is “manufactured and designed to avoid serious public debate,” given lawmakers knew concerning the deadline since late September.
The invoice incorporates quite a few add-ons, together with catastrophe help for hurricane harm and farmers; a well being care deal that features reforms to the pharmacy profit supervisor business; an extension of the farm invoice and a provision that opens the door to maneuver the Washington Commanders stadium to D.C.
“The true cost of this omnibus CR is far greater due to new spending. Renewing the Farm Bill for an extra year: ~$130BN. Disaster relief: $100BN. Stimulus for farmers: $10BN. The Francis Scott Key Bridge replacement: $8BN,” Ramaswamy wrote. “The proposal adds at least 65 cents of new spending for every dollar of continued discretionary spending.”
“Farmers will see more land sold to foreign buyers when taxes inevitably rise to meet our obligations. Our children will be saddled with crippling debt. Interest payments will be the largest item in our national budget,” he added later.
The tech entrepreneur, who launched an unsuccessful bid for president final yr, argued the invoice, which is greater than 1,500 pages, may have “easily” been beneath 20 pages.
“Instead, there are dozens of unrelated policy items crammed into the 1,547 pages of this bill,” he wrote. “There’s no legitimate reason for them to be voted on as a package deal by a lame-duck Congress.”
Ramaswamy and Musk visited Capitol Hill earlier this month, the place they met with a number of lawmakers about DOGE’s objectives. They typically acquired a heat response, particularly from these on the fitting.
“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,” Ramaswamy mentioned.
Quite a lot of GOP Home members slammed the stopgap invoice as working in opposition to DOGE’s objectives on Tuesday.
“It’s the opposite of what the DOGE commission is trying to do. So, am I voting for it? No, I’m not,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) informed reporters Tuesday.
“I think that it’s shameful that people that celebrate DOGE coming in, I can’t, and yet we’re going to vote for another billion dollars to be added to the deficit, and so it’s ironic. Personally, I’m disappointed,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) added.
