Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Newsmax on Thursday there is no reason for the U.S. budget to be higher now than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, saying President Donald Trump is receptive to rolling back spending to 2019 levels.
Johnson told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" he met with Trump on Thursday to discuss his plan, which would dial back federal spending to prepandemic levels while adjusting for inflation and population growth. He said it would shave $700 billion to $800 billion off the 2025 fiscal year's budget of $7.3 trillion.
"It was a very good meeting," Johnson said. "We definitely moved the ball forward in our discussions.
"I'm focusing on spending, spending, and then spending, but I also want to make sure that we don't have an automatic massive tax increase. And I truly do like what President Trump has proposed in terms of focusing on tax relief for hardworking Americans.
"So there's a lot that we discussed. The president is very open to my concept of looking at a prepandemic baseline and starting from there so that we really can reduce the size, scope, and cost of government without causing people any pain," he said.
"There's no reason we should be spending more than what we spent in 2018, plus the rate of inflation or population growth. He certainly supported that concept. We'll see [if] we can get support in the Senate and the House."
Johnson said his plan would not affect benefits such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
"You can still save $700 billion over current year spending," he said. "Again, $7.3 trillion is absurd. It's an insane level of spending.
"So that would take us to a back to a prepandemic level of spending. Again, the president liked the concept. We've got to sell it to our House colleagues and to some of my Senate colleagues."
Under the budget reconciliation process, the House and Senate would need only simple majorities for a budget measure to pass. And with the GOP holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate, Johnson said he thinks his plan can succeed.
"When I talk to my colleagues, I always start by saying, 'Does anybody think we spent too little in 2019?'" Johnson said. "'No.' 'Do you think it's reasonable if we took that spending level, increased it by how much our population is growing and account for even [President Joe] Biden's inflation and spend at that level. Is that unreasonable?' 'No.' 'OK, well, there we go. That's $6.5 trillion.'
"Again, that exempts Social Security and Medicare. So again, nobody can argue against the concept.
"Now if you start at [$7.3 trillion] and try and cut things, I mean that's where you run into problems. So instead, we all talk about zero-based budgeting, right? This is the next best thing," he said.
"This is $6.5 trillion based budgeting [and] build off of that. It's completely reasonable. Again, I think the president, it's fair to say, liked the concept. I think he'd like a shot at selling it to the House and selling it to the American people."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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