Elon Musk isn’t the president, but his power over Congress was made very clear this week when he single-handedly torpedoed a bipartisan bill which would have kept the government open through the new year.

At least, that’s what happened as far as congressional Democrats are concerned.

On Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was joined by Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar in placing the blame for the failed budget bill squarely at Musk’s feet.

“Elon Musk, an unelected man, said we’re not doing this deal and Donald Trump followed along,” Clark said. “So here we are, once again, in chaos.”

President-elect Donald Trump has since announced “success” in coming up with a new plan to fund the government, but one different from the one Musk spiked.

Democrats have lashed out at the tech-mogul over his declaration that passing of a stopgap bill — which included hundreds of millions in disaster aid and support for farmers — would be worse than simply shuttering large swathes of the federal government.

“’Shutting down’ the government (which doesn’t actually shut down critical functions btw) is infinitely better than passing a horrible bill,” Musk wrote.

Hours later, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance issued a joint statement in which the pair called for Republicans to abandon the bipartisan bill they’d negotiated with House Democrats in favor of passing paired down continuing resolution.

Trump announced House Speaker Mike Johnson had come up with a short-term continuing resolution that would kick the budget debate down the road to March, which he dubbed “the American Relief Act of 2024.”

According to the president-elect, the new bill would “keep the Government open, fund our Great Farmers and others, and provide relief for those severely impacted by the devastating hurricanes” while also offering a “A VERY important piece, VITAL to the America First Agenda.”

“The date of the very unnecessary Debt Ceiling will be pushed out two years, to January 30, 2027. Now we can Make America Great Again, very quickly, which is what the People gave us a mandate to accomplish,” Trump said.

Raising the debt ceiling, according to Trump and Vance, “is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch. If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration?”

It would be better to “have this fight now,” Vance said.

“We should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want. Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling. Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” he said.

Vermont’s Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said that letting Musk steer the entire budget process from his social media account showcases the power of the growing American oligarchy, before dropping a not-so-subtle hint about who he thinks is really running the show while Trump gets ready to take the oath of office a second time.

“Democrats and Republicans spent months negotiating a bipartisan agreement to fund our government. The richest man on Earth, President Elon Musk, doesn’t like it. Will Republicans kiss the ring? Billionaires must not be allowed to run our government,” he said via social media.

Jeffries, ahead of Trump’s announcement of a new bill, indicated that Democrats had already done the work required on their end and would be more than willing to pass the bill that both parties agreed to as recently as earlier this week, but that they wouldn’t entertain the passage of a smaller bill or consider raising or eliminating the debt ceiling.

“House Democrats reached an agreement on behalf of the American people, with House Republicans, that is bipartisan in nature, comprehensive, solves problems for hard working American taxpayers, and delivers real results,” he said.

“The best path forward is the bipartisan agreement that we negotiated,” Jeffries said.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said House Republicans’ new plan is just a gift to Trump and his billionaire associates.

“A two-year increase in the debt limit to grease the wheels for Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans’ tax handouts for billionaires is a terrible deal,” she wrote.

Even some Republicans seemed concerned about Johnson’s new spending bill. Texas’ U.S. Rep. Chip Roy made very clear where he stands.

“More debt. More government. Increasing the Credit Card $4 trillion with ZERO spending restraint and cuts. HARD NO,” he wrote.

If a deal is not reached by the end of Saturday, the government will no longer have the money to pay its bills and will begin to shutdown. That means many government functions — like the National Parks Service and the environmental and food inspections conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — could cease by the following Monday.

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