Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Newsmax on Thursday that while he's willing to increase the debt ceiling in exchange for "dramatic" spending cuts, he's not willing to scrap it altogether, calling it a necessary leverage point against runaway spending.
Johnson joined "The Chris Salcedo Show" to discuss where debt ceiling limits fit in with congressional Republicans' budget reconciliation package.
"[W]e're going to have to deal with the debt ceiling limit. I want to make sure we maintain a limit in place. It's really about one of the only leverage points to control federal spending," Johnson said. "I'm happy to negotiate an increase into it when it's tied to dramatic spending reductions."
Johnson blasted federal spending that continues to average $6.5 trillion in the years after the COVID pandemic instead of returning to pre-pandemic spending levels.
That said, Johnson praised the cooperation between Republicans in the new Congress.
"[W]hat I can tell you is there's a lot of collaboration between leadership, between the different factions in the House; bicameral meetings between House and senators," he said. "There are a lot of different opinions, there are different ways of approaching this; you know, one bill, two bills.
"But again, we're all aligned on the same goal of, first of all, securing the border, making sure that we do not have a massive automatic tax cut in 2026. We've got more time to avoid that. We don't have much time to secure that border," Johnson told Salcedo. "There's a lot of cooperation, a lot of collaboration going on with their new leadership, with Sen. [John] Thune and with Speaker [Mike] Johnson. That's a good thing. This is a very positive direction."
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