“We’ll have to see how much damage this does, but it’s already clear that assuming the worst happens — and it’s hard to see how it won’t — this will be the dumbest shutdown ever,” writes Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, addressing the seemingly imminent government shutdown now looming after Republicans in Congress backtracked on their support of a bill negotiated by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to keep the government open.
The impetus for the backtracking? Ostensibly it was President-elect Donald Trump and VP-elect JD Vance demanding that GOP Representatives rethink their ostensible capitulation to what Team Trump characterizes as debt ceiling irresponsibility, “sweetheart deals,” and outsize Democrat demands.
A statement from President Donald J. Trump and Vice President-Elect JD Vance:
The most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025. It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed.…
— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 18, 2024
But as Krugman sees it, Elon Musk — the world’s richest man who spent hundreds of millions and used his vast X-centered influence to help elect Trump — is the one really calling the shots so far, more so than Trump-Vance. Indeed, Musk’s barrage of X posts demanding the rejection of Johnson’s deal preceded Trump’s call for the same.
But why do Musk and company want to shut it all down, when Trump could enter a more placid transition phase and work out the next part from the Oval Office instead of from the bully pulpit in Mar-a-Lago?
After all, Johnson’s agreement would last just months, barely stretching into the start of Trump’s official second term. Part of it is MAGA wanting the debt ceiling raised — as it necessarily will be in any case — during Biden’s term, not Trump’s, but the rest?
Krugman says Musk is forcing the hand of Republicans in Congress to “renege on a deal they had already agreed to” because of what Musk claims are outrageous provisions in the Continuing Resolution.
But Krugman’s problem with the unelected Musk’s obstruction is this, as he phrases it: “None of the items Musk is complaining about are actually in the bill. No, Congress isn’t giving itself a 40 percent raise. No, the bill doesn’t fund a $3 billion stadium in Washington. No, it doesn’t block future investigations into the Jan. 6 committee. No, it doesn’t fund bioweapons labs.”
Krugman asserts that Musk says these things are objectionable, and that Congress is greenlighting them, and then Musk praises the people for their “vox populi” rejection of Congress’s bill when what they have rejected are things the bill doesn’t contain. Musk claims he is an agent of the people in posts as seen below, but the people — as Krugman sees it — are only punching a straw man in the face.
The voice of the people was heard.
This was a good day for America. https://t.co/r8K4AcbDYf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024
[NOTE: Some of what Musk objects to — like so-called “woke” language ferreted out by Benny Johnson — is in the bill. See below.]
The *Woke* Continuing Resolution bill mentions changing the term “Offender” to “Justice Involved Individual.” pic.twitter.com/7JOVatLm3F
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 18, 2024
Krugman, who is now publishing on his own after retiring this month from his longtime position at the New York Times, skewers Musk for making claims that advance the chaos without being factual, emphasizing the danger of this loose-facts approach given Musk’s power and influence — and the unchecked nature of that power and influence.
“You might have imagined,” Krugman writes, “that the world’s richest man could have a couple of fact-checkers on retainer to help ensure that he isn’t making clearly stupid assertions. But nooo.”
Krugman asserts that while Trump and Musk posit there will be little actual damage done by a shutdown — Medicare and Social Security, for example, are shielded — there are myriad services that will be affected, and that will be disruptive to people who can least afford the disruption.
Krugman concludes that “a government shutdown in response to completely false claims about what’s in an innocuous short-term funding measure suggests that the peddlers of misinformation are high on their own supply.” Krugman draws from this conclusion the possibility of a dangerous future wherein oligarchs don’t merely peddle falsehoods that help produce the outcomes they want, but in which the oligarchs believe the falsehoods.
Absolutely.
All I can do is bring things to the attention of the people, so they may voice their support if they so choose. https://t.co/sFxGaXTfzg
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024
Near the end of his post, Krugman asks: “How will [Trump] voters react if, as seems all too likely, the second Trump administration is instead marked by rolling chaos?”
With an astute answer to that question, one commenter illuminates a reason why Musk and Trump are so consistently emboldened, writing: “I know how those voters in my family will react: They’ll blame Democrats. Guaranteed.”
Musk and Trump, controlling so much of the information those voters receive, are able to control the narrative. Not just pushing information to rally support for an effort to shut down the government, as Krugman laments, but to dictate afterward how that shutdown is perceived.