Senate Democrats trained their ire on X owner Elon Musk as part of a marathon voting session Thursday that sought to shift attention away from a GOP border measure.
Democrats devoted many of their amendments to protecting Medicaid as House Republicans consider the entitlement for budget cuts.
But senators also brought forward a number that challenged the firing of federal workers witnessed under Musk, the billionaire adviser to President Donald Trump who has become synonymous with the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency.
The voting session, known colloquially as a “vote-a-rama,” allows the Senate to move forward on a GOP budget resolution that unlocks some $340 billion in border and defense spending.
But Democrats used the process, which grants the minority party an unlimited number of amendment votes, to test out a new messaging strategy following their 2024 election loss.
As the marathon dragged on, Democrats sought to paint Republicans as giving handouts to the wealthy while cutting services relied upon by the poor and middle class.
The opening amendment, introduced by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), would have prevented Republicans from passing tax cuts for billionaires. Other votes dealt with Medicaid but also housing affordability, energy costs, and the price of groceries.
“In just one month, Donald Trump and Republicans have eviscerated so many of our institutions in order to cater to the whims of billionaires,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Thursday morning from the Senate floor.
Musk is central to that narrative. In his speech, Schumer named him repeatedly, each time as a wealthy boogeyman, while other Democrats used floor remarks on Thursday afternoon to insist that Musk is running roughshod over the Constitution by slashing federal programs and jobs.
During the amendment votes later that night, Democrats highlighted the firing of federal workers, from firefighters to avian flu experts to those protecting public lands.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) at one point panned Musk as an “unelected billionaire” that Trump had allowed to “run rampant” through the federal government.
At another, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) suggested that Republicans were putting school lunch funding at risk to pad the pockets of rich people like Musk.
Republicans have publicly supported DOGE, describing it as a much-needed downsizing of the bureaucracy, even as leadership acknowledges some of the changes Trump is making unilaterally will need to be codified into law.
On Thursday, the party dismissed the Democratic messaging as a distraction from the stated purpose of the border resolution.
The vote-a-rama, which lasted 15 hours in 2022, builds on Democratic efforts last week to oppose Musk in a Senate Budget Committee hearing for the measure.
In that hearing, Democrats proposed amendments that would have audited DOGE, limited the department’s access to government systems, and banned legislation that benefits Musk financially.
Taken together, the amendments represent an attempt by Democrats to steady themselves after being swept out of power.
For the first time in the minority, they can put vulnerable Republicans on defense with votes that test their willingness to buck the president and repudiate his administration’s early actions.
None of the amendments are binding, given that the resolution does not have the force of law, and with a 53-47 majority, Republicans can shoot down most or all of them.
TRACKING WHAT DOGE IS DOING ACROSS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
But they are aimed at exacerbating quiet divisions within the GOP over DOGE, which has drawn soft GOP criticism over the speed and breadth of its government jobs cuts.
The vote-a-rama occurred the same day Musk appeared at CPAC, an annual gathering of conservatives, brandishing a chainsaw onstage.
