New Delhi: Elon Musk, billionaire CEO of Tesla, expressed disappointment in US President Donald Trump’s recently passed legislative spending package, highlighting concerns over its impact on the national budget deficit.
Referring to the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," which aims to usher in a new "Golden Age" by extending the 2017 tax cuts and reducing social safety net programs, Musk remarked, "I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing." He added, "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful but I don't know if it can be both. My personal opinion."
The bill, passed last week by the House of Representatives along party lines with a narrow 215-214 vote, includes multi-trillion dollar tax breaks, stricter Medicaid work requirements, increased border security funding, and a rollback of clean energy tax credits. It will now move to the Senate for consideration.
While Republican leaders managed to quell dissent from the conservative wing to secure the bill’s passage, fiscal hawks within the party remain skeptical. Independent analysts estimate that the package could add up to $4 trillion to the federal deficit over ten years.
In contrast, the White House Council of Economic Advisers projects optimistic economic growth reaching up to 5.2 percent, a forecast considered unusually ambitious compared to mainstream analysis. Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated the legislation "does not add to the deficit" and claims it would yield $1.6 trillion in savings through spending cuts.
Elon Musk’s remarks, made during a recent interview, underscore a divergence of views between the Tesla CEO and President Trump, despite their longstanding personal rapport. Musk recently stepped back from his role overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he referenced in his critique.
