BeeLine: Clash of the Titans

Last week we saw a Clash of the Titans as Elon Musk and Donald Trump jousted with each other on social media after Musk criticized the "Big Beautiful Bill" passed by the House.

Needless to say, President Trump was not happy about Elon bashing the "Big Beautiful Bill" that contains most everything he promised on the campaign trail.

Link: https://x.com/overton_news/status/1930669747760222461

It spiraled down from there. Musk starting attacking Trump personally and even stated that he wanted to start a third political party.

Trump said he has no interest in talking with Musk and stated that "Elon's totally lost it."

What do I make of all of this?

Trump and Musk are both very strong-willed individuals who are used to winning and being successful.

They are both right when it comes to the "Big Beautiful Bill".

Musk is right on principle.

Trump is just being practical considering the political realities right now.

I wrote about the contradictions involved in this legislation in an earlier blog post titled "Principled or Practical?" right after the House voted on the legislation.

There is a lot to be said about upholding your principles.

However, we live in the real world.

When do your principles have to give way to practical reality?

This was a question that every Republican in the House of Representatives had to answer this week when the "Big, Beautiful Bill" budget reconciliation came up for a vote on the House floor.

The bill (H.R. 1) passed the House yesterday morning by one vote---215 yea, 214 nay.

Two Republicans voted no. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Warren Davidson (R-OH).

Principles only go so far in Washington, D.C.

There is no political will or urgency to do anything about the federal debt right now.

This year has proven that the Democrats are even opposed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse.

There was not even enough Republican support in Congress to codify a fraction of the DOGE findings of waste, fraud and abuse at USAID and other agencies.

Elon Musk is right on principle. However, he appears to already be living on Mars.

There is absolutely no way you are going to get any Democrat to vote for anything that advances the Trump agenda.

And if you could only get the current bill passed with one vote to spare among Republicans in the House it it is clear that making even the smallest modifications will disrupt the delicate voting alliance that led to passage in the first place.

Of course, the bill must still clear the Senate which presents a separate challenge despite the fact that being a "Reconciliation Bill" it is not subject to filibuster and can be brought to a final vote with only 51 rather than 60 votes.

Many, perhaps including Musk, do not seem to understand, some of the critical details underlying the Reconciliation Bill

It keeps being reported that this bill will add to the deficit but that is all a function of the funky budgetary rules that the Congressional Budget Office uses.

For example, if current law continues all of the previous Trump tax cuts from his first term will expire and taxes will go up massively.

The CBO is counting the extension of current law as adding to the deficit when the actual budget numbers will not change form year to year.

The only budget "cuts" allowed in a Reconciliation Bill are to mandatory spending programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. There are no cuts to Social Security and Medicare in the bill.

The only real change to the Medicaid rules will be to disallow Medicaid benefits to any able-bodied Americans of working age who refuse to work. This is the same rule that was put in place during the welfare reform law during the Clinton administration that was later repealed by Obama.

I am sure that Elon Musk is frustrated that Congress has not moved to legislatively approve some of the recommended DOGE cuts. However, all of these involve discretionary spending programs that cannot be done through reconciliation.

This is also the reason that Trump's campaign promise to exempt Social Security benefits from taxation is not in the Big Beautiful Bill. The rules do not allow this change to be done through reconciliation. This will have to be done in a separate bill. In the interim, the BBB provides for a $4,000 senior citizen bonus income tax deduction for those with joint incomes below $150,000.

My view is that Musk miscalculated in all of this.

He let frustration with the process get the better of him.

Principles are great but you also have to be practical.

Yes, Musk is the world's richest man but he is not going to win going up against the world's most powerful man who is also very popular with most Republicans right now.

Attempting to get the federal government on the right path is significantly more complicated than getting a rocket on the right path to Mars.

Musk has already deleted several of his more inflammatory tweets about Trump but he may face an uncertain path back to good graces with Trump and the Republican party.

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-elon-musk-feud-epstein-x-truth-social-democrats-live-updates-b2765886.html

At the same time, it is unlikely that the Democrats are going to be welcoming Musk to their party,

Democrats have shown they are against even the most minimal spending cuts.

Democrats have made clear they are not even interested in touching waste, fraud and abuse in the current budget. They have attacked Musk and DOGE at every turn.

Elon's opinion on what is going on in Los Angeles right now is also not a very popular opinion with Democrats.

Anything to resist Trump and his policies is perfectly fine.