Why Aren’t More Democrats Speaking Out Against RFK Jr.’s HHS Nomination?

President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk have succeeded in getting House Republicans to kill what was expected to be an easily-passed continuing resolution that would keep the federal government open and avert a costly and confusing shutdown just days before Christmas.

Early Wednesday evening, Republicans rejected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s bill, according to The Washington Post.

“The chances of a shutdown have now increased quite a bit,” CNN’s Manu Raju had reported at 4:35 PM ET, amid the fast-moving developments. “Congress hasn’t even discussed a debt ceiling hike. And Trump is inserting that toxic fight on top of the government funding bill that is already at risk of collapsing amid a revolt on the right.”

“And just like that,” observed NBC News’ Garret Haake, “we’re teetering on the edge of a government shutdown, as Trump & Vance come out against Speaker Johnson’s CR.”

“Suddenly Trump and Vance now say they want to negotiate on the debt ceiling, as the CR+ deal goes absolutely sideways in less than 24 hours,” noted longtime congressional correspondent Jamie Dupree.

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“Trump-Vance statement trashes the bipartisan stopgap funding bill and now calls for adding a DEBT CEILING INCREASE, which is nowhere in the mix. Two days till government shuts down,” noted NBC News’ Sahil Kapur.

Trump and his Vice President-elect, JD Vance, had issued a statement after Musk’s many hours of attacking the continuing resolution, which The Post attributes to killing the CR.

“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF,” the statement read.

Democrats are not calling for the federal government to shut down.

“It is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief,” it also states, which is false. “THIS CHAOS WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IF WE HAD A REAL PRESIDENT. WE WILL IN 32 DAYS!”

Wednesday morning, PBS News had reported: “Congressional leaders have unveiled a stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government funded through March 14 and provide more than $100 billion in emergency aid to help states and local communities recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.”

“President Joe Biden has sought about $114 billion in disaster aid, submitting a $99 billion request in November, telling lawmakers the funding was ‘urgently needed.’ The administration subsequently updated its request to include funding to repair federal facilities damaged due to natural disasters.”

“The bill will provide $100.4 billion in disaster relief, with an additional $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers struggling with low commodity prices and high input costs.”

Musk, Donald Trump’s incoming co-chair of the non-federal government Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), on Wednesday had been calling for Congress to stop passage of all legislation until the President-elect is sworn in to office on January 20. For more than 12 hours it appeared Musk was actively undermining the CR that was meant to avert a shutdown at 12:01 AM Saturday.

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“No bills should be passed Congress until Jan 20, when @realDonaldTrump takes office. None. Zero,” Musk, late Wednesday afternoon, posted to his social media platform X.

“Kill the Bill,” Musk declared to his more than 207 million followers, referring to the continuing resolution. The CR must be passed by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Biden before the midnight Friday deadline to avert a costly and disruptive government shutdown right before Christmas.

Musk’s remark was in response to a post from far-right Congressman Jim Banks, who is now the Republican Senator-elect for Indiana.

Banks had claimed the CR “funds the censorship of conservative speech for the entire first year of the Trump administration. Unacceptable!”

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

CBS News’s Jim LaPorta, a former Marine who has written extensively on the military and veterans, responded to Musk’s claim by saying, “The impact to military families, particularly at the lowest ranks where there’s food insecurity and families living paycheck to paycheck are impacted. Child care centers which some service members depend on can shut down during a shutdown—a critical function for them.”

In response to a post falsely claiming the bill also includes a 40% pay raise for members of Congress, Musk wrote: “Unconscionable.”

Musk also wrote, and pinned to the top of his feed, this: “How can this be called a ‘continuing resolution’ if it includes a 40% pay increase for Congress?”

The pay raise, the first for Congress since 2009, would increase salaries by about 4%, not 40%.

“Rank-and-file lawmakers in both chambers earn $174,000 annual salary, with those in leadership earning more. The maximum potential member pay adjustment in January 2025 under the stopgap spending bill would be 3.8 percent, which would result in a salary of $180,600, an increase of $6,600,” Politico reported.

Musk had kicked off the day attacking the continuing resolution.

“At 4:15 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Musk tweeted that ‘This bill should not pass,’ and he’s gotten noticeably more strident as the day has gone along,” Mediaite reported Wednesday afternoon. “In a raging tweetstorm over the last hour or so, Musk has called the bill a ‘scam,’ a ‘criminal bill,’ an ‘insane crime against the American people,’ ‘an outrage,’ ‘terrible,’ and ‘madness.’”

“’The more I learn, the more obvious it becomes that this spending bill is a crime. It even includes funding for the worst illegal censorship operation in the entire government (GEC)!!’ mused Musk in one post.”

At 3:58 PM Musk claimed the continuing resolution was “dead.”

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warned if the government shuts down, Republicans will own it: “House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government. And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support. You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) also issued a warning: “Remember what this is all about: Trump wants Democrats to agree to raise the debt ceiling so he can pass his massive corporate and billionaire tax cut without a problem. Shorter version: tax cut for billionaires or the government shuts down for Christmas.”

Meanwhile, Aaron Fritschner, Deputy Chief of Staff for Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, offered this observation: “Trump and Vance intervening to personally block states from getting disaster relief – including red states hit by Helene – after weeks of flat out lying to the country about the emergency response is one of the most cynical and depraved things I’ve ever seen in this town.”

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Image via Reuters