In the wake of a successful effort to eliminate a year-end spending bill and replace it with more limited legislation to keep the government open, Elon Musk declared victory last week on X (formerly Twitter), the social media platform he owns:
“Your actions turned a bill that weighed pounds into a bill that weighed ounces!” he sang. “You are the media now. “VOX POPULI VOX DEI.”
The stopgap funding measure will largely delay major spending decisions until after Donald Trump is inaugurated, keep the government open through the holidays and at least temporarily delay the most indefensible spending that was included in the funding bill. change of scale. But those who believe that indefensible spending will never appear in the budget again are endearingly optimistic.
The most interesting political conclusion of the drama is that the Republican Party now has two masters with different objectives. Musk's stated mission was to impose fiscal restraint and greater efficiency on the government (although his unstated motives are a matter of speculation). Trump's goal was to avoid the problems of a debate over raising the government's debt limit early in his term, which would allow him to accumulate more debt through spending and tax cuts.
Based solely on the political outcome, Musk won and Trump lost. Although the bill spends less than the previous version, it does not raise the debt ceiling.
Both objectives can be defended. I think Musk is unquestionably right about the need to cut spending. And while I don't want Trump to be able to rack up more debt, fights over the debt limit are reckless because they call into question the full faith and credit of the United States. The challenge for Republican lawmakers is that they are caught between the agendas of two figures who are very popular on the right, and those agendas (and perhaps others) are in conflict.
We will have to wait to see how the policy develops. In the meantime, I also want to address the more philosophical issues with Musk's position.
First, literally weighing the value or waste of legislation by the ounce, as Musk proposes, isn't exactly logical. The National Industrial Recovery Act (the founding legislation of the New Deal) is 18 economic pages long, but that hardly gives any idea of its massive impact on the economy.
Then there's the idea that Musk's minor budget victory proves that his X followers are “now the media.” Hey?
The standard conservative complaint about traditional media is that they mislead the public in service of an ideological or self-serving agenda. But Musk rallied his virtual crowd with a series of FAKE claims on the higher spending bill. Now he suggests that misleading the public in service of the agenda of a media platform owner is a glorious triumph. It's certainly a triumph for the hypocrisy of “if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.”
Finally, Musk's oft-repeated motto “Vox populi, vox dei” – “The voice of the people is the voice of God” – is theological nonsense. Its use by British Whigs to challenge monarchical power in the 18th century was politically defensible, but it does not take a degree in theology to understand that, taken literally, the phrase holds that God is subordinate to the passions and vicissitudes of public opinion. It is very difficult to find anything in the Old or New Testament to support that idea.
If one poll was enough to change God's mind, Sodom and Gomorrah would have been fine, Noah wouldn't have needed a ship, and Jesus wouldn't have had to ask God to “forgive them, for they know not what they do.” .”
One of the first mentions of the Latin phrase is found in the writings of Alcuin of Yorkadvisor to Charlemagne. Alcuin told the first Holy Roman Emperor to ignore such declarations of public piety “since the uproar of the crowd is always very close to madness.”
Musk started using the phrase “Vox populi, vox dei”to validate the verdicts of their own Twitter polls. When users voted to reinstate Trump's account two years ago, Musk declared that the result he clearly wanted amounted to a divine declaration. We can only guess what this says about Musk's God complex and its compatibility with his role as Trump's Alcuin.
But my main objection to Musk's claim is that it is a dangerous lie. The idea that the biggest mafia has God on its side is even more pernicious than the notion that legislation should be measured in pounds.
