Thursday’s Final Word

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Thursday's Final Word 1

Closing the tabs …

President-elect Donald Trump, after rejecting House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to avoid a government shutdown, worked the phones on Thursday, showing wavering confidence in Johnson and claiming he is aligned with billionaire Elon Musk, who first posted multiple calls to kill the GOP-brokered spending deal. …

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Trump also indicated that he had discussed his views on the bill with social media giant Musk and granted the billionaire permission to trash the government spending bill on his social media platform.

“I told him that if he agrees with me, that he could put out a statement,” Trump said.

Ed: I find the pearl-clutching over Musk’s alliance with Trump absolutely hilarious. The same media didn’t say peep over the last four years about Joe Biden’s alliances with George Soros, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos until very recently, Warren Buffett, the Arabella group, not to mention Hollywood’s studios, Protection Racket Media and Big Tech corporate execs, and so on. Why is Thuh Oligarchy only a problem when it supports lower spending and free speech?

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Ed: These clowns spent the last four years refusing to ask the same question: “Who is in charge?” That seemed like a lot bigger issue in the present administration, especially after June 27. 

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“You have to ask Donald Trump if Elon Musk is the one making decisions,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) told HuffPost on Wednesday.

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The Democratic messaging tack represents the party settling on a loose message for the early days of the second Trump administration, with leading senators labeling Trump’s billionaire-stocked Cabinet an oligarchy and preparing to argue the wealthy businessmen around Trump are setting the Republican agenda rather than the purportedly populist president-elect.

Ed: Again … why aren’t they more interested in who’s running the White House now?

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Ed: Great. Now let’s do George Soros, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos until very recently, Warren Buffett … need I go on?

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In an interview with Fox, Trump seemed to dismiss the idea of the need for an immediate change, indicating Johnson will retain his speakership easily, just so long as he acts “decisively and tough.” But how decisive can you really be in that unrelenting job with Trump breathing down your neck and nothing but bad options in front of you? 

What this incident really indicates is that unlike his first rodeo with Paul Ryan, Trump is going to have no qualms pushing Johnson around whenever these types of negotiations crop up. The total party takeover translates to full power over the Congress, at least for the next two years. And if Trump is displeased, there’s no question he’s quick to make a change.

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Ed: I think Trump would much prefer not to have that fight. Johnson is already reacting to Trump’s signals, and a leadership fight would likely paralyze Trump’s big legislative agenda for a big chunk of time when he has some momentum. But Johnson had better learn lessons quickly, too. 

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The latest continuing resolution would maintain current funding levels for government agencies until March 14, adhering to the same timeline as the previous proposal. However, the revised version would omit certain provisions from the original package that conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump, rejected, such as pharmacy benefit managers reforms, and language that would increase the cost of a higher blend of ethanol, called E15. 

The new package would also keep the $110 billion in additional spending to go toward disaster aid and farmers’ assistance after a number of Republicans in the House and Senate threatened to withhold support if those were not included. 

Additionally, the package includes language that would push the debt limit fight off for another two years, suspending the ceiling until January 2027 and relieving Trump of having to deal with it at the start of his term.

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