Elon Musk is pushing Republicans to torpedo a stopgap bill to keep the federal government open, egging on conservative critics who were already unhappy about the legislation.

• Why it matters: Musk is flexing his new political muscle — and antagonizing House GOP leadership — before President-elect Trump has even been inaugurated.

🏛️ Where it stands: Congress needs to pass a spending bill by midnight Friday to avoid a government shutdown. Conservatives criticized some provisions of the spending bill, including a pay raise for members of Congress, after Speaker Mike Johnson released the bill text last night.

👎 Musk piled on today, amplifying the right's objections and urging lawmakers to vote "no."

• He said Congress shouldn't pass any legislation until Trump is sworn in — which would guarantee a roughly monthlong government shutdown.

What we're watching: There's some opposition "from every corner" of the caucus, and the bill "is on thin ice," a House Republican told Axios' Andrew Solender and Victoria Knight.

The Fed trimmed interest rates again today, but signaled that there may not be too many more cuts after this one, Axios Marco co-authors Neil Irwin and Courtenay Brown write.

• Today's projections implied only two rate cuts ahead next year — not the four signaled by previous projections.

🚦What they're saying: "Today was a closer call, but we decided it was the right call," Fed Chair Jay Powell told reporters at a press conference this afternoon, referring to the decision to cut rates.

• "We are at or near a point at which it will be appropriate to slow the pace of further adjustments," he said.

🔻The news sent stocks plummeting. The Dow was down 1,100 points today, its second-biggest drop of the year.

• All 11 S&P sectors closed lower, per CNBC.

Go deeper.

1. 📱 The Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok's challenge to the bipartisan law that could ban the app from the U.S. Oral arguments will be Jan. 10 — just nine days before the law is set to take effect. Go deeper.
2. 📑 The House Ethics Committee has voted to release its report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) by the end of the year, despite initially blocking release. Go deeper.
3. 🎓 Black and Hispanic enrollment at Harvard Law plummeted almost by half this year. Harvard blamed the drop on the Supreme Court ruling that ended affirmative action. But other law schools didn't see such huge declines. Go deeper.

Americans have plenty of room for guests. The number of homes with "extra" bedrooms just hit a record high, Axios' Emily Peck writes from a new analysis.

• The total number of extra bedrooms in the U.S. reached 31.9 million last year.
• The report, which analyzed census data, defines "extra" bedrooms as the number of bedrooms in excess of the number of residents (plus one, to account for the possibility that one room is used for an office).

🛌 Between the lines: Americans are having fewer children, and more people are living alone. Many empty-nest baby boomers don't want to leave their big roomy houses, especially if they're locked into low mortgage rates.

• "We are in a golden age of extra bedrooms," Danielle Hale, Realtor.com's chief economist, says in a statement.

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