Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk told CBS News Tuesday he is “disappointed” in the spending codified in the Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill.”
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” the Tesla CEO said.
“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful,” he continued with a smile. “But I don’t know if it could be both.”
After months of negotiations and 48 straight hours of work, House Republicans successfully passed the budget reconciliation bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson has been urging the Senate to alter the legislation as little as possible given the “delicate” consensus House GOP leadership crafted on the president’s landmark bill, but President Donald Trump approved Senate Republicans making “the changes they want” in the sweeping tax and spending bill.
Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller responded to criticisms that the spending bill does not “codify the DOGE cuts” earlier Tuesday.
“A reconciliation bill, which is a budget bill that passes with 50 votes, is limited by senate rules to ‘mandatory’ spending only—eg Medicaid and Food Stamps,” Miller wrote. “The senate rules prevent it from cutting ‘discretionary’ spending—eg the Department of Education or federal grants. The DOGE cuts are overwhelmingly discretionary, not mandatory. The bill saves more than 1.6 TRILLION in mandatory spending, including the largest-ever welfare reform. A remarkable achievement.”