Elon Musk has launched an all-out assault against US President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill that could spike deficits by $US2.4 trillion and leave millions without health insurance.
The tech billionaire shared a barrage of comments and reposts on X on Thursday (US time), calling on Americans to pressure Republicans to “kill the bill”.
The former DOGE chief complained that Trump’s package “contains the largest increase in the debt ceiling in US history”.
“It more than defeats all the cost savings achieved by the @DOGE
team at great personal cost and risk,” the world’s richest man wrote on X.
“It is the Debt Slavery Bill.”
In another post he implored: “Call your Senator, call your Congressman, bankrupting America is NOT ok!”
Musk, whose business interests could be impacted by green energy rollbacks in the bill, demanded: “KILL the BILL.”
He posted a bright yellow promo image from the Quentin Tarantino movie Kill Bill, featuring actress Uma Thurman.
He also reposted a flurry of comments, memes and videos from others critical of the bill.
However, Republicans continued to speak up for Trump’s bill.
Republican senators spent more than an hour in what they called a robust afternoon discussion with Trump, after an analysis released on Wednesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
“We’re committed to making a law that will make the lives of the American people better,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said afterward.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he called Musk to discuss the criticism, but had not heard back. Musk has threatened to use his political apparatus to go after Republicans in the midterm elections.
Trump is pushing Congress, where Republicans have majority control, to send the final product to his desk to become law by the July 4. The House passed the bill last month by a single vote, but it’s now slogging through the Senate, where Republicans want significant changes, including those discussed with Trump.
The bill includes roughly $US3.75 trillion ($A5.8 trillion) in tax cuts — extending the expiring 2017 individual income tax breaks and temporarily adding more that Trump campaigned on, including no taxes on tips.
The revenue loss would be partially offset by nearly $1.3 trillion in reduced federal spending elsewhere, namely through Medicaid and food assistance.
As a result, some millions of Americans would no longer have health insurance.
Republicans argue that their proposals are intended to strengthen Medicaid and other programs by rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.
But Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the claims were simply part of long-running Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, as most states have expanded Medicaid to serve more people under the program.
Additionally, its estimated that nearly 4 million fewer Americans would have food stamps each month due to the legislation’s proposed changes.
Ahead of the CBO’s release, the White House and Republican leaders criticised the budget office in a preemptive campaign designed to sow doubt in its findings.
Thune said the CBO was “flat wrong” because it underestimated the potential revenue growth from Trump’s first round of tax breaks in 2017.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has also suggested that the CBO’s employees were biased, even though certain budget office workers face strict ethical rules — including restrictions on campaign donations and political activity — to ensure objectivity and impartiality.
During the meeting at the White House, Trump briefly brought up Musk, senators said, with Senator Roger Marshall describing it as “a laughing conversation for 30 seconds”.
The CBO, established 50 years ago, is staffed by 275 economists, analysts and other employees. Its role is to provide Congress with objective, impartial information about budgetary and economic issues.
-with AAP
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