WASHINGTON — Home Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned that he jokingly requested Elon Musk if he wished to take over his job — after the billionaire helped torpedo a significant authorities spending invoice on Thursday, leading to a pared-down model that handed Friday evening after two days of intense wrangling.
“Elon Musk and I talked inside about an hour in the past and we talked concerning the extraordinary challenges of this job,” Johnson (R-La.) advised reporters after the Home overwhelmingly handed the ultimate package deal.
“And I mentioned, ‘Hey, you need to be speaker of the Home? I don’t know.’ He mentioned this can be the toughest job on the planet. I believe it’s.”
Musk, the incoming chief of President-elect Donald Trump’s cost-cutting Division of Authorities Effectivity, took on a number one function in tanking an earlier 1,547-page invoice, with Johnson then whittling it right down to 118 pages with Trump too becoming a member of in criticizing the preliminary model.
Home Democrats took to calling the SpaceX and Tesla CEO “President Musk” throughout debate on the invoice.
Musk praised Johnson on Friday night, tweeting: “The Speaker did an excellent job right here, given the circumstances. It went from a invoice that weighed kilos to a invoice that weighed ounces. Ball ought to now be within the Dem court docket.”
The function of Home speaker doesn’t require that particular person to be a member of the Home, although all occupants to this point have been, that means that Musk technically might assume the job if members have been to pick him.
Johnson’s personal destiny is doubtful because of Republicans’ extraordinarily slim majority subsequent 12 months and anger from fiscal hawks over even the pared-down spending invoice.
Johnson mentioned that he was in shut contact with Trump in the course of the ultimate levels of debate on the invoice, which nonetheless have to be handed by the Senate and signed by retiring President Biden to keep away from a partial authorities shutdown at midnight.
“I used to be in fixed contact with President Trump all through this course of,” Johnson mentioned. “I spoke with him most lately about 45 minutes in the past. He knew precisely what we have been doing and why and this can be a good final result for the nation. I believe he actually is joyful about this final result as effectively.”
The Home speaker argued that Republicans can be extra free to shake up federal spending come January when they are going to management each chambers of Congress and the White Home.
“Issues are going to be very totally different round right here. This was a obligatory step to bridge the hole, to place us into that second the place we will put our fingerprints on the ultimate selections on spending for 2025,” Johnson mentioned.
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