It’s a very good thing the House’s mammoth, pork-filled year-end spending bill “collapsed under its own weight” Wednesday, and that Elon Musk’s growing influence helped accelerate the crash, says Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt.
“It was a disaster, and I’m glad it went down in flames,” Schmitt said in an exclusive interview with The Heartlander Thursday.
“It just was filled with a bunch of pork and wasteful spending and goodies for Democrats. It funded the Global Engagement Center, which is part of the Censorship Industrial Complex that we exposed in [the landmark court case] Missouri v. Biden. It had all kinds of stuff that people would find objectionable.
“Hopefully people will learn from this a little bit – that these last-minute deals, these omnibus-like vehicles, we shouldn’t do this stuff anymore. We should have a regular appropriations process where people can weigh in, and you end up with something that more people have input on.
“But that’s not what they’ve done. And it collapsed under its own weight. And so, they’re going to start over now, and I think we need to get to a place where President Trump can come in on Jan. 20 and execute his agenda, not with all this sort of leftover stuff from Joe Biden.”
Despite myriad financial and policy excesses in the failed continuing resolution, some observers were alarmed that X owner and Trump adviser Elon Musk appeared to have so much influence in defeating it.
Schmitt is just fine with it, though – noting public feedback on proposed bills is invaluable – and standard practice on Capitol Hill.
“It’s an open platform,” Schmitt says of the governing process. “We get hundreds of calls, emails, letters. I’m on social media. I think you just want to have input from people, and you saw a lot of that happening yesterday. People were finding out what was in this bill – this 1,500-page monstrosity – and they didn’t like it.
“X has become a platform for people to state their point of view. I think that’s a good development. Ultimately, we’re the elected officials who are going to make these decisions, but we should want to hear from a broad base of people.”
Congress must pass a stopgap spending bill by midnight Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown. As expansive and expensive as it was, the failed spending package would’ve only extended government spending to mid-March.
President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a written statement that Republicans should pass “a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.”
