“It did surprise me, frankly. I don’t take it personal; we don’t take it personal. Policy differences are not personal. I think he’s flat wrong. I think he’s way off on this, I’ve said that publicly and privately.”
When asked what he thought had changed since their conversation, Johnson said he called Musk since he came out against the bill to assure him it “would be jet fuel for the U.S. economy,” but also noted he had already talked to the president about Musk’s about-face.
“When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocket ships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it.”
The package would also boost the U.S. debt limit, currently at $36 trillion, by another $4 trillion to allow for more borrowing. The White House claims the bill would boost GDP by 2.6% to 3.2% in the long term, while median-income households would see a boost in take-home pay in the ballpark of $5,000 a year.
But the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan federal agency that works within the legislative branch that’s staffed by some 275 economists, estimates the bill would cut taxes by $3.7 trillion but also increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade. The CBO also says the bill would increase the number of people without health insurance by about 10.9 million Americans.
