Well, it looks like we’ve hit the part of the Trump-Musk bromance where reality and principle start to elbow each other at the dinner table. Elon Musk, President Trump’s head of the Department of Government Efficiency just threw some cold water on Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” and he did it on national TV. In a CBS interview preview that airs this Sunday, Musk said what a lot of fiscal conservatives are already whispering: the bill’s price tag is a bit of a monster.
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful,” Musk quipped, “but I don’t know if it can be both.” Classic Musk — part engineer, part troll, part truth-teller. He’s not wrong, either. At $1.4 trillion, this bill is anything but small-government. Sure, it’s got some incredible, pro-America goodies baked in — extending the Trump tax cuts, wiping out federal taxes on tips, overtime, and car loan interest for American-made vehicles. And yes, there’s even a $1,000 tax-free “MAGA Savings Account” for every newborn and an increase in the child tax credit to $2,500. It’s bold, it’s creative, it’s unapologetically pro-worker.
But it’s also expensive — and Musk, who’s been trying to trim the fat from our ballooning federal bureaucracy, sees this bill as a step backward. “It increases the budget deficit, not decrease it and undermines the work the DOGE team is doing,” he said. That’s a shot from inside the house.
And while the House narrowly passed the bill 215–214 (one GOP rep even reportedly fell asleep during the vote — maybe from reading the whole thing), the Senate is already sharpening its knives. Senator Rick Scott, normally a Trump ally, said he’d vote no in its current form. “We all know we have to balance the budget,” he told Charlie Kirk. “It’s getting harder to sell our treasuries.” Translation: we can’t just keep throwing cash around like we’re hosting a federal government version of The Price Is Right.
Look, the bill has good bones. The tax reforms are smart. Incentivizing American labor and manufacturing? Absolutely. But conservatives are right to question the price tag. Trump’s instinct to stimulate the economy is on target — but if you’re going to rebuild America’s middle class, don’t mortgage their future to do it.
Let’s hope this bill gets a MAGA-style trim before it hits the Resolute Desk.
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