Who won and who lost in the government shutdown battle? Follow the money.

The battle over extending government funding to March played out as a battle between Republicans, with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump as the big players, and power as the game. When a government shutdown was averted, most people breathed a sigh of relief and turned away. Underneath the surface, however, there was a lot more going on than an intra-party squabble.  Follow the money.

Who won? Elon Musk 

Hidden inside the budget battle were provisions that gave Elon Musk and China a big win. Musk managed to get Congressional Republicans to remove provisions restricting transfer of technology to China. Think semi-conductors, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. Think off-shoring jobs to China. Think Elon Musk’s major investments in China, past, present and future. 

The bill originally agreed to by Democrats and Republicans included restrictions on trade and technology transfer. The bill after Musk’s maneuvering dropped all of that. 

[The American Prospect] “You can argue about whether the U.S. should be restricting investment in China. But it’s incontrovertible that a billionaire who has a bunch of investments in China and wants to make more all of a sudden disrupted a normal congressional process that was going to restrict that investment with a bunch of lies from his media platform. And lo and behold, when the new funding bill emerged, the outbound investment feature was dropped. In fact, all traces of provisions related to China were removed from the bill.” 

Way to go, DJT, with your “get tough on China” bullshit. 

Who won? United Health and the PBMs

Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) make prescription drugs less available and more expensive for most of us, as well as driving independent pharmacies out of business by pricing policies that charge them more and give giant price breaks to giant drugstore chains. United Health Group owns the second largest PBM. 

The bill originally agreed to by Democrats and Republicans included provisions for more transparency in prescription drug pricing and restrictions on profiteering by PBMs. Those provisions were stripped out during the Musk-Trump shenanigans.

[CNN] “For a moment, it looked like Congress would actually enact reforms of controversial pharmacy benefit managers after several years of introducing bills and holding hearings.

“But it was not to be. The slate of measures that would have injected more transparency into the industry and changed some of its practices were stripped from the massive bipartisan government funding package that was torpedoed by President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday.’

Who lost? 9/11 First Responders 

Part of the “bloat”removed during the Trump-Musk strong-arming of Congress was money for the 9/11 first responders health fund. The provision would have secured long-term funding through 2040. Now the fight for funding will happen over and over again. That’s a burden the first responders should not have to bear.  

[New York Times] “[James Brosi, the president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association in New York,] said he was crushed. Firefighters, he said, had thought they were finally closing a chapter in the yearslong battle to end periodic shortfalls and secure long-term funding for emergency workers and others who have grown deathly ill from the toxins of ground zero. …

“The initial legislation included a provision that would have ensured care through about 2040 for victims of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, as well as the police officers, nurses, firefighters and volunteers who inhaled toxic fumes, dust and smoke at ground zero.

“Mr. Brosi said more than 130,000 people were still paying the price of that day, suffering respiratory ailments and other illnesses. About 35,000 people in the program have been diagnosed with cancer, he said.” 

Who lost? Truth

The Global Engagement Center, with a staff of about 120, is the State Department office charged with tracking and countering disinformation. One of its mandates has been countering Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine. Another task: countering escalating Chinese propaganda around the world. 

[Agence France Presse] “The [Global Engagement Center] GEC had an annual budget of $61 million and a staff of around 120. Its closing leaves the State Department without a dedicated office for tracking and countering disinformation from US rivals for the first time in eight years. …

“In a report last year, the GEC warned that China was spending billions of dollars globally to spread disinformation and threatening to cause a ‘sharp contraction’ in freedom of speech around the world.” 

Who lost? Honest taxpayers

The IRS has been hamstrung for years, denied adequate funding to go after big-time tax cheats. Auditing little people costs relatively little. Auditing and enforcing tax laws against multi-millionaire and billionaire tax cheats costs a lot—they have good lawyers and accountants and fight every inch of the way. 

With increased funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS finally had both resources and a strong mandate to pursue these big-time tax evaders, as well as increasing services to the regular people who call its help lines. Republicans have slashed that funding. 

[Washington Post] “Biden administration officials said the additional cuts would add $140 billion to the national debt over the next decade by hamstringing the agency’s ability to audit wealthy individuals and large corporations.

“The agency will conduct 400 fewer audits of major businesses each year, Biden administration officials said, and 1,200 fewer audits of high-income individuals.

“More cuts would also force the IRS to dramatically reduce customer service for taxpayers, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said last month. By 2026, the IRS would have enough resources to answer only two of every 10 phone calls to customer helplines, and wait times would increase to 28 minutes on average. …

“In the 2022 filing season, months before Congress approved the law, only 10 percent of taxpayer phone calls were ever connected to a live representative — if callers stayed on the line through sometimes hours-long waits. The IRS now answers more than 85 percent of taxpayer calls with a wait of less than three minutes, Adeyemo said.”

Follow the money. Behind the smoke and mirrors of Musk/Trump vs. Mike Johnson, real business got done—bad business for the American people.