Elon Musk Fueled Backlash To Spending Plan With False And Misleading Claims

A bipartisan deal to avert a government shutdown collapsed Wednesday amid a sustained campaign against the package led by billionaire Elon Musk — one featuring a series of false and misleading statements.

Musk used his social network X to stir Republicans into a frenzy over the stopgap spending bill filed the night before by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was forced by his thin majority to negotiate with Democrats on a resolution that could pass in time to avert a government shutdown that would start 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

That outcome appeared more likely as President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance came out against the bill, calling instead for a pared-back measure coupled with a debt-limit increase. The House canceled votes on the spending plan, which included $100 billion in disaster aid funding, billions in farm assistance and dozens of other side deals that pushed the final product past 1,500 pages.

Among the 100-plus tweets Musk sent as part of his campaign were a number of misleading or outright false claims — a possible preview of the mogul’s new role as co-leader of a Trump-blessed effort to slash government funding.

Musk didn’t seem to think a government shutdown would have significant consequences for the country. He responded “YES” to a post that read, “Just close down the govt until January 20th. Defund everything. We will be fine for 33 days.” Another Musk post said a shutdown “doesn’t actually shut down critical functions.”

But while essential functions would continue during a shutdown, there are significant real-world effects: Other government employees will halt their day-to-day work and miss paychecks. While Social Security checks will go out and mail will be delivered, agency shutdowns cause massive lost productivity. A five-week shutdown from 2018 to 2019 caused the economy to lose about $3 billion, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

The billionaire falsely claimed that members of Congress would get a 40 percent pay raise as part of the package — something both Musk and the X account for his so-called Department of Government Efficiency got wrong.

Members of Congress have not had a raise to their $174,000 salaries since 2009, after repeatedly freezing a law implementing automatic cost-of-living increases. The pending CR does not include a COLA freeze, but that would not result in a 40 percent boost in pay — far from it. The maximum potential pay adjustment would be 3.8 percent, an increase of $6,600.

Even if lawmakers had given themselves all 15 years of rejected COLAs — which, again, they are not doing — it would result in only a 31 percent increase, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Musk reposted a claim that the bill would provide $3 billion for a new NFL stadium in Washington. Not true: The bill transfers control of the site of the existing RFK Stadium to the D.C. local government for redevelopment, which could potentially include a stadium. No federal funds are changing hands as part of the transaction.

There is a possibility that D.C. taxpayers could eventually be on the hook for the project: Mayor Muriel Bowser has floated using local funding to cover environmental remediation costs and upgrade underlying infrastructure. But any redevelopment plan would be subject to D.C. government approval and wouldn’t involve any federal dollars appropriated in the pending bill.

He’s also wrong that the bill shields the Jan. 6 committee — a claim that may have helped draw Trump further into the debate.

Musk said it was “[o]utrageous” that the bill would block House Republicans from investigating the Jan. 6 select committee established in the prior, Democratic-majority Congress. Not exactly: The section of the bill cited by the convicted Jan. 6 rioter that Musk quoted has nothing to do with internal House investigations.

Rather, it’s language meant to clarify that House data stored on outside digital platforms remains under control of House offices — and thus subject to House rules and procedures for accessing it: “A House office shall be deemed to retain possession of any House data of the House office, without regard to the use” of any particular platform, the bill reads.

Musk also gave oxygen to an untrue assertion when he reposted a screenshot from a conservative account Libs of TikTok claiming that the legislation would fund “bioweapon labs.”

That is false: The provision in question would establish regional biocontainment laboratories as part of a larger pandemic preparedness plan. Their stated purpose is “conducting biomedical research to support public health and medical preparedness,” not creating bioweapons. The provision is part of a long-sought reauthorization of the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness and Response Act.

David Lim and Ben Leonard contributed to this report.