WASHINGTON — After the Senate narrowly passed President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts on Tuesday, the House will vote on the legislation.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Crescent Springs, was one of two Republican votes against the bill in May, calling it a “debt bomb ticking.” Now that the Senate has amended it, he’s preparing to vote against it again.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the legislation, as it now stands, would increase the federal deficit by $3.3 trillion over 10 years.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Massie for his “no” vote, promising to support a primary challenge against him and calling him a “loser.”
On Tuesday, the president posted online: “New poll: Anybody I Endorse beats Thomas Massie of Kentucky by 25 points. Get ready. Massie is a very bad guy!”
Billionaire Elon Musk once was a presidential adviser, heading the president’s cost-cutting effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency, and attending cabinet meetings.
He’s since had his own falling out with the president over the bill and said in an online post Tuesday that lawmakers who ran on cutting spending, but voted for the bill “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
After former Michigan Rep. Justin Amash asked Musk to support Massie, Musk replied, “I will.”
In a post expressing thanks for Musk’s financial help, Massie wrote that his reelection is a “referendum on whether members of Congress can think and act independently based on what’s best for the country, or whether all members of Congress must be reduced to rubber stamps for their respective political parties and swampy special interests.”
Trump told reporters Tuesday that he would “take a look” at deporting Musk, who is originally from South Africa but is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Musk said in an online post that he would refrain from escalating the feud.