Despite President Donald Trump urging the Senate to follow the House's lead and deliver "one big beautiful" budget bill, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Newsmax on Wednesday that the Senate is trying to "prioritize things" and break the legislation into several parts.
Appearing on "Newsline," Johnson, who is on the Senate Budget Committee and Homeland Security Committee, said that "we're certainly taking the path of trying to keep it simple. What the House is trying to do, and I applaud their efforts, is very complex, which means it is going to be very difficult to pass. What we are trying to do is prioritize things."
The senator added that "we don't want to let this thing get bogged down, so we want to provide the funding for the border."
The House version combines all of Trump's spending priorities and tax cuts, although it is uncertain such a bill can pass with only a very slim Republican majority to work with in the House.
Johnson stressed that "I would doubt that the House is going to be able to pass [its version], and I would doubt the House is able to come up with the spending cuts."
He said "that is why we need to try and break this into parts and keep the parts as simple as possible. Give us the time to do the really hard work on simplifying and rationalizing our tax code."
Johnson said that there is no justification for such a massive increase (more than 60%) in spending over the past several years.
He emphasized that "we have to focus on spending, spending, spending. We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem and we have to prioritize," adding that "we have to reduce to some reasonable level of pre-pandemic spending."
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