Democrats Are Searching For Ways To Rein In Elon Musk

WASHINGTON – The federal government will partly shut down next month if Congress doesn’t act, and Democrats are debating how best to use their leverage to stop Elon Musk and Republicans from unilaterally freezing spending, dismantling government agencies and laying off federal workers.

Democrats want assurances from the White House written into the government funding bill that it will actually be implemented rather than ignored as the Trump administration has done with billions of dollars in foreign aid, climate and other spending.

“We have seen this administration disregard a lot of things. Absolutely, Congress needs to weigh in on how we want funding spent,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told HuffPost on Thursday.

Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee that is negotiating over the March 14 funding deadline, has argued for weeks that the GOP can’t expect Democrats to help them fund the government and then turn around and allow the Trump administration tear up their agreement.

But how could a new law constrain an administration that’s already ignoring the laws on the books?

“The law is the law. I’m not sure what, like, a new super-law would do,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told HuffPost.

Republicans, meanwhile, maintain “poison pill” provisions like the ones Democrats are seeking ought to be left out of the talks as negotiators make progress on an agreement for overall spending levels for the next year. Lawmakers may need to pass a short-term funding bill to give negotiators more time to reach a deal.

The dispute is presenting Democrats with some tough questions. For example, how far are they willing to go to stop Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency from illegally freezing spending without congressional approval? Will they risk a protracted government shutdown — something Republicans might actually want — by holding firm in their position? Democrats, after all, generally want the government to work.

Or, do Democrats risk angering their liberal base by helping keep the government open without any meaningful concessions from the White House to get federal workers back on the job or unfreeze spending? Several Democratic lawmakers have already been on the receiving end of angry protesters demanding they “do something” during demonstrations at the U.S. Capitol.

Murphy is not the only Democrat who is skeptical that the Trump administration and Musk can be constrained, even if Republicans agree to add language to that effect in a government funding bill.

“He’s shown that the last thing he’s concerned about is what the language is in the legislation,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) told HuffPost. “He’s shown he’s going to do what he wants with the budget. It makes me pessimistic that getting language makes the slightest bit of difference to what his actions will be.”

The debate in Congress over the Trump administration’s spending freeze is playing out as courts consider legal challenges. Some of the president’s early executive orders have already been put on hold, including his bid to end birthright citizenship.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) offered another idea on pushing back against the Trump administration on Thursday, demanding Republicans stop Musk from laying off the people who process Social Security payments.

“Republicans must keep their hands off Social Security. Any bipartisan spending agreement has to protect the administration of these earned benefits,” Jeffries said in a statement in response to news of possible layoffs at the Social Security Administration.

Jeffries declined to elaborate on what Democrats have in mind, such as a layoff moratorium or something else, telling HuffPost his statement spoke for itself. He also refused to provide details on his other demand for some sort of restraint on the administration.

But the top House Republican involved in government funding negotiations rejected the Social Security demand out of hand on Thursday.

“If the Democrats want to shut down the government, they certainly can,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told HuffPost. (Republicans control the White House and both branches of Congress, but any funding deal will need bipartisan support to pass in the Senate.)

The Social Security Administration already sent termination notices to several dozen workers last week in a move that shielded frontline staff who help process benefits and take calls from the public. Democrats worry another wave of layoffs is coming thanks to a new directive issued this week from the Office of Management and Budget.

“Don’t they understand that to get a Social Security check you need to have somebody there to process it?” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.) told HuffPost.

Asked if legislative language blocking layoffs would do the trick, Fernandez suggested it was more important to send a message to Republicans and Musk: “Just stop it.”