Washington- Republican Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas compared Elon Musk to an unelected Prime Minister after the Tesla CEO got involved in a tumultuous funding fight on Capitol Hill this week that raised concerns about a possible government shutdown — and provided a glimpse of the dynamics under a GOP-controlled Washington.
“We have a president, we have a vice president, we have a president. It’s like Elon Musk is our prime minister,” Gonzales said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
After days of uncertainty, Congress approved a measure to keep the government funded until mid-March, which President Biden signed Saturday to avoid a shutdown. But the resolution came after multiple failed attempts to fund the government, including a scuttled bipartisan deal following intense resistance from Musk, whom President-elect Donald Trump chose to lead a new agency called the Department of Government Effectiveness or DOGE. After Musk’s criticism, Trump finally delivered the final blow.
Musk, who spent $277 million to help Trump win the election and has since become a key member of the president-elect’s brain trust, has posted dozens of times on his social media platform initial government funding measure following its release. Hours later, after Trump intervened, the deal was dead.
Gonzales, who was among 34 Republicans opposed to the final measure to keep the government funded, said he did so because his constituents were against the continuing resolution, or CR, “just as much as I was against the CR”.
“It was a vote on my part to say: let’s do our job,” he said, asserting that there is a “disease in Washington” that cannot be cured by “big, long bills filled with pork “.
Texas Republicans said he spoke with Musk several times during the week. And Gonzales argued that, although unelected, Musk has a voice that is largely “a reflection of the voice of the people.” He also argued that Trump deserves credit for scaling back the bill from its original form.
Meanwhile, the spending legislation, as well as the ensuing chaos in the House, sparked heavy criticism of House Speaker Mike Johnson for his handling of the situation. At least one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, said he would not support Johnson for president in the new Congress, while questions swirled about his ability to retain enough support to keep the gavel.
Despite his opposition to the legislation, Gonzales said he supported Johnson as president, arguing that “he’s done a fantastic job of keeping us all together” and noting that “it’s like wild cats in the House “.
Gonzales said Johnson had a “tough job to begin with,” while adding that the speaker’s ability to work with the president-elect and Musk to find a solution “is just going to prove that he found a way.”
