WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Billionaire Elon Musk was one of the most prominent voices to help tank a spending plan in Congress last week, leading Democrats to joke about his influence. 

“Speaker Johnson should just hand Elon Musk the gavel,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas). 

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the DOGE Commission, aimed at cutting federal spending when President-elect Trump takes office. 

Musk and Trump complained about the size of the spending bill House Speaker Mike Johnson negotiated with House Democrats to fund the government through mid-March. After a barrage of tweets, Johnson was forced to pull the agreement. 

Johnson was eventually able to avoid a government shutdown, by passing a slimmed-down version of the original agreement. 

Still, Republican lawmakers say they’re excited about the influence of Musk and Ramaswamy, to shrink government spending. 

“I think this is a once in a generation opportunity,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). 

The Department of Treasury said the national debt is over $36 trillion, but Congress controls less than a third of government spending every year. 

Federal spending is split into two categories: mandatory and discretionary. Congress’s yearly budget controls only the discretionary spending. 

Mandatory spending made up about $3.8 trillion of the $6.1 trillion the federal government spent in FY 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It’s made up of programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. 

Democrats have accused Republicans of trying to cut those programs. 

“Neither political party can unilaterally change Medicare or Social Security,” said Sen. John Cornyn. “So, I think for practical purposes, those are off the table.” 

Republican lawmakers say they can cut other programs to get the deficit under control. It was $1.7 trillion in FY2023.