Elon Musk bashes Congress’ government funding bill

• Elon Musk, co-head of cost-cutting commission DOGE, said on X that the bill “should not pass.”
• The 1,547-page proposal would fund the government through mid-March.
• Speaker Mike Johnson said in a press release that he spoke to Musk last night about his displeasure.

Hours after lawmakers released an eleventh-hour bill to fund the government through the middle of March, Elon Musk weighed in on the proposal.

“Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?” he asked in a post on X above a photo of the 1,547-page bill.

Musk is set to co-lead Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which aims to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget by July 4, 2026, alongside biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.

In his own post, Ramaswamy urged every representative and senator to read the bill. Musk minced no words when he reposted his co-head’s statement.

“This bill should not pass,” Musk wrote above his repost.

If passed, the stop-gap spending bill will fund the government through March 14 and avert a government shutdown, leaving Congress to deal with major spending choices after President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The bill includes $100 billion in disaster relief, $10 billion in economic aid for farmers, and the first pay raise for members of Congress since 2009.

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson said in a press release that he had spoken to Musk and Ramaswamy in a text chain on Tuesday night. The two “understand the situation,” the speaker said in the release.

“They said, it’s not directed to you, Mr. Speaker, but we don’t like the spending,” Johnson said. “I said, guess what, fellas, I don’t either.”

Representatives for Johnson declined to comment further for this article.

Musk and Ramaswamy have already begun publicizing potential places to cut, including scaling back the federal workforce and slashing departments. The two have met with GOP lawmakers to discuss their goals, though details of the meeting remain scarce.

Representatives for Musk and Ramaswamy did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.