Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., warned Tuesday on Newsmax that the nation's "skyrocketing" deficit is unsustainable, urging leaders to focus on long-term fiscal discipline as Congress faces pressure to raise the debt ceiling in the "Big Beautiful Bill."
Appearing on "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Johnson said the latest budget negotiations fail to make meaningful reductions to the deficit and continue the dangerous trend of runaway federal spending.
"Well, first of all, I would have goals going into a budget reconciliation process. And my first goal would be to not increase the deficit — certainly try and reduce or bend the deficit curve down. We're not doing that," Johnson said.
Citing the Congressional Budget Office's 10-year budget outlook, Johnson pointed to projections that the U.S. will spend $89 trillion during the next decade and add approximately $22 trillion to the national debt. "That's an average deficit of about $2.2 trillion a year," he said. "That ramps up from about $1.9 [trillion] up to about $2.5 [trillion]. Clearly, we are increasing the deficit trajectory."
While acknowledging that some elements of the House bill under discussion are positive, Johnson said it falls short of addressing the larger issue. "We can argue over the exact score on this particular bill, but it's pretty undeniable. The trajectory is up."
Johnson praised former President Donald Trump's recent pledge during the State of the Union to balance the federal budget — something Johnson said hasn't been achieved in 24 years.
"You're not going to balance the federal budget if you're allowing deficits to grow," he said. "The House bill, fortunately, does many good things. Obviously, I don't want a tax increase. We need to take that off the table. We're going to have to increase the debt ceiling. I've never voted for that before, but I will if we do enough to return to a pre-pandemic level of spending and institute a process to achieve it."
Johnson's central message was well-defined: "You have to focus on the long-term trajectory of our deficit. And right now, it's going up, it's skyrocketing, and it's unsustainable."
Reflecting on the explosion in government spending since the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson noted that federal outlays have risen from $4.4 trillion in 2019 to more than $7 trillion this year — an increase of 58%.
"That's unprecedented," he said. "We went from President Trump in his first three years, averaging about $810 billion in deficit spending. Then, of course, COVID-19 $3.1 trillion deficit. But we should have returned to at least less than $1 trillion. Biden averaged $1.9 trillion in deficits. And that's locked in now."
Asked why it seems so difficult for policymakers to rein in spending, Johnson offered a blunt answer.
"I guess it's hard," he said. "But the beauty is President Trump and Elon Musk showed us how to do it — contract by contract, line by line, program by program."
"We have to do it," he implored.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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