Yesterday, a tantrum from the world's richest person swayed events in Congress. First, Elon Musk launched a blizzard of X posts denouncing a bipartisan spending bill designed to keep the government open. Calling the bill 'criminal,' Musk threatened: 'Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years!' Panic ensued among the notoriously skittish congressional GOP, who quickly bowed to their master's voice. Musk, of course, is not actually the president-elect. He received approximately zero percent of the votes in last month's election. But for a few hours this week, Musk didn't just act as if he, and not Donald Trump, will soon hold the reins of government power; the GOP also responded as if he will. As Russell Berman noted in The Atlantic earlier today, Republicans were not happy with the proposed version of the spending bill, but House Speaker Mike Johnson 'believed that he could get enough Republicans to join most...
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