LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Senate Republicans have to decide how willing they are to line up once again behind President Trump.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Lawmakers are discussing a giant budget bill that contains much of the president's agenda. It already faced criticism from Democrats who say it takes money from people at the bottom of the economy to give tax breaks to people at the top. Now it faces criticism from the president's longtime ally, Elon Musk, who says the budget calls for way too much borrowing. In a moment, we'll hear how this debate looks to Jonah Goldberg, a longtime observer of Washington. We begin with the facts.
FADEL: With me now is NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales. Good morning, Claudia.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: OK, so we know Elon Musk spent big last year to help get the president elected.
GRISALES: Right.
FADEL: Then he was the face of the administration's cuts to federal workers and federal agencies before recently stepping back. So now we see him railing against Trump's signature domestic policy bill. What's happening here? What's his objection?
GRISALES: Right. In one word - cost. Musk, as you mentioned, wanted to slash government spending, but he says the GOP bill does the exact opposite. He went as far as sharing a promotional image yesterday on his social media site, X, from the Quentin Tarantino film "Kill Bill." And it's emboldened fiscal conservatives like Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. He was on our All Things Considered yesterday, arguing that Musk is well respected and defended his efforts to tank the bill.
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RON JOHNSON: People recognize him as a very smart individual who did a fabulous job with DOGE exposing waste, fraud and abuse, and now he's stepped away from the administration. He's basically doing what I'm doing. He's telling people the truth.
GRISALES: And by his truth, he's one of the senators who early on, even before Musk spoke out, said he wasn't going to support this bill. And he's not alone. There are others. And Senate Republicans have a razor-thin margin, and they can only afford to lose three votes.
FADEL: And how are Republican leaders responding to Musk's criticisms?
GRISALES: They say the criticisms are flat wrong and that the GOP plan would instead grow the economy and cut spending. A key figure in all of this is Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who, along with other Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee, were at the White House meeting with President Trump yesterday about the bill. He was asked to respond to Musk's remarks.
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JOHN THUNE: What he stated was that he thought it was something that would add to the deficit, and we believe the opposite.
GRISALES: And Thune added, there's no turning back at this point. There's too much at stake as this legislation carries the bulk of Trump's domestic agenda.
FADEL: OK, Claudia, they say that, but the bill would grow the deficit, right?
GRISALES: Right. That's the projection. Yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office scored the current version of the bill that passed the House last month. They found it would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years. And they said the biggest driver of that is extending a tax cut program passed during Trump's first term. It also includes dramatic cuts to Medicaid as part of a Republican effort to pay for this legislation. But the CBO says, even as they force 11 million Americans to lose their health insurance, it falls way short of paying for the bill's price tag.
FADEL: And we're seeing some Republicans push back against that CBO analysis. What's going on there?
GRISALES: Republicans are saying that the CBO has been wrong before. They also say their numbers fail to account for economic growth they expect to come from the bill. They also say the agency has become politically driven. This is a nonpartisan office, so a reminder of the kind of politicization that even a nonpartisan office can face these days. And their findings also mirror other studies by other nonpartisan groups that show similarly how this bill would balloon the deficit. So all a signal that Republicans are determined to make this happen regardless.
FADEL: NPR's Claudia Grisales. Thank you, Claudia.
GRISALES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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