Mike Johnson downplays Musk's influence and says Republicans will pass
Trump's tax and budget bill
[June 09, 2025]
By BILL BARROW
With an uncharacteristically feistiness, Speaker Mike Johnson took clear
sides Sunday in President Donald Trump's breakup with mega-billionaire
Elon Musk.
The Republican House leader and staunch Trump ally said Musk's criticism
of the GOP's massive tax and budget policy bill will not derail the
measure, and he downplayed Musk's influence over the GOP-controlled
Congress.
“I didn’t go out to craft a piece of legislation to please the richest
man in the world,” Johnson said on ABC's “This Week.” “What we’re trying
to do is help hardworking Americans who are trying to provide for their
families and make ends meet,” Johnson insisted.
Johnson said he has exchanged text messages with Musk since the former
chief of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency came out against
the GOP bill.
Musk called it an “abomination” that would add to U.S. debts and
threaten economic stability. He urged voters to flood Capitol Hill with
calls to vote against the measure, which is pending in the Senate after
clearing the House. His criticism sparked an angry social media
back-and-forth with Trump, who told reporters over the weekend that he
has no desire to repair his relationship with Musk.
The speaker was dismissive of Musk's threats to finance opponents — even
Democrats — of Republican members who back Trump's bill.
“We’ve got almost no calls to the offices, any Republican member of
Congress,” Johnson said. “And I think that indicates that people are
taking a wait and see attitude. Some who may be convinced by some of his
arguments, but the rest understand: this is a very exciting piece of
legislation.”
Johnson argued that Musk still believes “that our policies are better
for human flourishing. They’re better for the US economy. They’re better
for everything that he’s involved in with his innovation and job
creation and entrepreneurship.”
The speaker and other Republicans, including Trump's White House budget
chief, continued their push back Sunday against forecasts that their tax
and budget plans will add to annual deficits and thus balloon a national
debt already climbing toward $40 trillion.
Johnson insisted that Musk has bad information, and the speaker disputed
the forecasts of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that scores
budget legislation. The bill would extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts, cut
spending and reduce some other levies but also leave some 10.9 million
more people without health insurance and spike deficits by $2.4 trillion
over the decade, according to the CBO's analysis.
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., wraps up a news conference
on President Donald Trump's bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, at
the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (AP Photo/J.
Scott Applewhite)
The speaker countered with arguments Republicans have made for
decades: That lower taxes and spending cuts would spur economic
growth that ensure deficits fall. Annual deficits and the overall
debt actually climbed during the administrations of Ronald Reagan
and George W. Bush, and during Trump's first presidency, even after
sweeping tax cuts.
Russell Vought, who leads the White House Office of Budget and
Management, said on Fox News Sunday that CBO analysts base their
models of “artificial baselines.” Because the 2017 tax law set the
lower rates to expire, CBO's cost estimates, Vought argued,
presuming a return to the higher rates before that law went into
effect.
Vought acknowledged CBO's charge from Congress is to analyze
legislation and current law as it is written. But he said the office
could issue additional analyses, implying it would be friendlier to
GOP goals. Asked whether the White House would ask for alternative
estimates, Vought again put the burden on CBO, repeating that
congressional rules allow the office to publish more analysis.
Other Republicans, meanwhile, approached the Trump-Musk battle
cautiously.
“As a former professional fighter, I learned a long time ago, don’t
get between two fighters,” said Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin on
CNN’s “State of the Union.”
He even compared the two billionaire businessmen to a married
couple.
“President Trump is a friend of mine but I don’t need to get, I can
have friends that have disagreements,” Mullin said. “My wife and I
dearly love each other and every now and then, well actually quite
often, sometimes she disagrees with me, but that doesn’t mean that
we can’t stay focused on what’s best for our family. Right now,
there may be a disagreement but we’re laser focused on what is best
for the American people.”
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Associated Press journalist Gary Fields contributed from Washington.
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