Hillary Clinton says Republicans are getting orders from ‘richest man in the world’ to shut down government

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded Thursday about Elon Musk’s influence over the spending drama on Capitol Hill.

“If you’re just catching up: The Republican Party, taking orders from the richest man in the world, is about to shut down the government over the holidays, stopping paychecks for our troops and benefits from nutrition for low-income families just in time for Christmas,” the 2016 presidential candidate wrote to X.

Clinton, a former first lady and senator, served in Congress from 2001 to 2009.

His comments came as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson released a new version of a continuing resolution, or CR, to keep the government open beyond a Friday night deadline.

‘HELL NO’: HOUSE DEMS Erupt Over GOP Spending Deal

Musk strongly opposed the original spending deal Johnson brokered with Democrats, threatening to back a primary challenge to any Republican who voted for him.

Without an acceptable deal to open the government’s funding window until March and continue spending at 2024 levels, the government will go into partial shutdown at midnight on Saturday.

But House Democrats are resisting latest iteration of a spending plan. And with a debt of $36 trillion and a deficit of $1.8 trillion by 2024, some conservatives oppose a CR, which sets the funding deadline until March and keeps spending at 2024 levels entirely .

“The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious, it’s laughable. Extreme MAGA Republicans are leading us into a government shutdown,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., indicated that the Democratic leadership would whip its members to vote “no” on the deal.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., lamented that the latest deal was blown up by opposition from conservatives, with input from DOGE leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

HERE’S WHAT HAPPENS DURING A PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

“Everybody agreed,” he said, “and then it was exploited by Elon Musk, who has apparently become the fourth branch of government. And that’s just an intolerable way to proceed.

“Democrats are going to try to figure out how we can save the public good as the scraps that were just pushed.”

Cries of “hell no” were heard inside the room where the Democrats were meeting after the text of the bill was released.

The latest continuing resolution would extend current government funding levels for three months and also suspend the debt limit for two years, something President-elect Trump has demanded.

It comes after the original 1,500-page CR drew opposition from the right over politics and funding corridors.

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House lawmakers could vote on the new bill as early as Thursday evening.

It was not immediately clear whether the new deal would go through. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who led opposition to the initial bill, also criticized the new deal.

“More debt. More government $4 trillion credit card increase with ZERO spending restrictions and cuts. HARD NO,” Roy wrote to X.