The main problem with President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" is that it codifies the sharp increase in budget deficits during and immediately after the pandemic and does not bring them down to pre-COVID-19 levels, Sen. Ron Johnson told Newsmax on Tuesday.
Although the Wisconsin Republican conceded on Newsmax's "Wake Up America" that there are no doubt many good items in the bill, he insisted that "the probem is it just doesn't go far enough."
Johnson explained that even by the White House's best case scenario for the performance of this bill, which is a very uncertain prospect, the average deficit per year will be almost $1.9 trillion per year for 10 years.
These numbers compare to President Barack Obama's last four years in office, where his average deficit was $550 billion per year, Johnson said, adding that during Trump's first three years in his first term, where he had to deal with Democrats, the deficit increased to $810 billion annually.
Johnson stated that during the panic over the pandemic, "our problem is we went on a massive spending spree," which then continued when "Democrats under [President Joe] Biden did not return to reasonable pre-pandemic levels. They averaged deficits of $1.9 trillion over their four years."
The senator bemoaned that the "big, beautiful bill" basically codifies this, adding that "we don't bend the deficit curve down."
Such deficits, Johnson emphasized are both shocking and unsustainable.
The senator rejected that the problem of deficits can be addressed at a later date, saying that this is the one chance for such legislation before the midterm elections and that it is unknown if the Republicans can once again win the majority in order to carry out further GOP policy goals.
Johnson stressed that currently the Republican Party has control in both the House and Senate, and "what is the majority good for if you don't utilize the majority."
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Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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