Is the OBBB the DAB or Will it Be Improving? Also, What it Means to You – Top 3 Takeaways – June 5th, 2025 – Driven By Braman Motorcars
Takeaway #1: Maybe it won’t be the DAB after all?
It seems that Elon Musk might be doing his biggest DOGEing to date now that he’s no longer part of the administrative state. It was on Tuesday in the X post heard round the world by Elon said: I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. And with that prolific post the OBBB had been branded the DAB by one of the most influential and credible people in the world. Musk didn’t stop there either. Not only did he cast shame on those who voted for it, he followed it up with a series of posts that said... Congress is making America bankrupt. And then there was this one which might have been the one post that rocked the congressional world. In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people. Now if there’s one thing that might be scarier for many Congressional Republicans than losing the potential Musk money train to fund their campaigns – it's the potential that he’ll be funding the campaigns to kick them out of office. That’s a post that hits many of them where it hurts. After that btw, there were a series of supportive posts by members of Congress like Rand Paul and Mike Lee which Elon Musk then reposted. Musk then stated: Interest payments already consume 25% of all government revenue. If the massive deficit spending continues, there will only be money for interest payments and nothing else! No social security, no medical, no defense … nothing. It had become clear that Elon Musk wasn’t going to voice his issues with the...
Takeaway #2: Disgusting Abomination Bill
...and walk away from what he perceives to be a growing dumpster fire that could consume the whole of our country, or “debt slavery” which is another term that Elon used to describe what he thinks will be if Congress passed the OBBB. So, what happens now? Well, there are a couple of things. You could go to the White House website with a landing page aimed at allowing you to calculate your potential tax savings should the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act pass. Incidentally, my savings was zero. Yours probably is too unless you’re earning tips or overtime. The next big thing that’s likely to change is the bill itself. If the heat was on members of congress over spending levels previously, it’s likely to be off the charts high now. In the meantime, President Trump who is probably seeking to appease Elon’s sensibilities, has called for Congress to “clawback” $9.4 billion in DOGE savings through “wasteful foreign aid spending” at USAID and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who most recently said that Elon is wrong about the OBBB, will “act quickly on the president’s request”. That’s a good thing – especially reducing public broadcasting funding – but it’s not even measurable as a rounding error in the overall federal deficit picture. The cuts need to go much deeper and significantly farther not just for what’s needed to stave off potential “debt slavery” but also to change Elon Musk’s tone. The GOP loved having Musk defending the president and leading the DOGEing...but Musk isn’t a politician. He's not interested in winning elections...
Takeaway #3: He’s interested in fixing the country (and autonomous driving, sending things into space, boring, brain implants, and unprecedented connectivity among other things)... So maybe Elon’s leadership will lead to a bill that is, if not beautiful, at least somewhat ascetically pleasing? Or maybe, at the very least, isn’t a disgusting abomination? And about that... There was more that came down during that day that addressed the current glutteness state of play with the final House version of the OBBB. By the time House Speaker Mike Johnson was done appeasing blue state Democrats by significantly lifting the deductible amount of SALT tax, the CBO found more bloat. Yesterday the CBO estimated the amount of debt over the next decade that the current version of the OBBB would add now totals $2.4 trillion (up $100 billion from the original estimate). But the latest estimate of the Big, Bloated, Bill did include a lot of other instructive info too. For example...numbers were broken out for how many slugs we’ve paying for and how many illegal immigrants we’ve been feeding through federal government assistance programs most recently. 10.9 million on the former. 1.4 million on that latter. Now in certain circles this is being reported as 10.9 million people “will lose healthcare” under the OBIT (the One Big Indeterminate Thing). Nope those are 10.9 million slugs that should have salt (not the tax deduction – actual sodium) dumped on them, as it would perhaps prompt a constructive response where at least they might move around a little bit as opposed to exclusively sucking off the government...teet. 10.9 is the number of people who currently receive Medicaid, are able-bodied, and of working age, but that do not work at least 20 hours a week, look for work at least 20 hours a week or perform at least 20 hours of community service per week. The only outrageous thing is that we’re talking about all this debt, and the rest of us productive types are still paying for them to abuse the system and to be as lazy as they care to be. And as for the 1.4 million illegal immigrants on federal food stamps, those are just the ones that are already detected. Which begs the question that if we know where these illegal immigrants are sufficiently to track why they’re collecting government assistance – why aren’t we arranging new arrangements with a new government agency that can deport them back to their home country? Anyway, that’s the current state of affairs with the OBBB aka the DAB and what is effectively the OBIT. Fingers crossed Elon’s influence leads to some world class last minute DOGEing in the Senate.