(DCNF)—Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said Sunday on CNN that he believes there will be enough GOP members to halt President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” until their concerns are addressed.
Despite Trump pushing Republicans to pass his budget reconciliation package, some GOP lawmakers have remained unconvinced. While on “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper asked the lawmaker if he could give a number on how many GOP members are willing to push back against the bill.
“So, we’re out of time, but I’m just wondering if you could just give me a number, how many other Republican senators do you think share your concerns and are willing to work to make major changes to this bill?” Tapper asked.
“I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit,” Johnson responded.
Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” narrowly passed the House on Thursday by just one vote, 215-214-1. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio joined Democrats in voting “no,” with House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris voting “present.”
Prior to noting how GOP senators would have enough support to block the bill, Tapper had asked Johnson “how determined” he is going to be to advocate for GOP members to block the bill unless there are “major changes.”
“This is our moment. We have witnessed an unprecedented level of increased spending, 58% since 2019, other than World War II. This is our only chance to reset that to a reasonable pre-pandemic level of spending,” Johnson said. “Again, I think you can do it, and the spending that we would eliminate, people wouldn’t even notice.”
“But you have to do the work, which takes time, that’s part of the problem here is we’ve rushed this process, we haven’t taken the time, we’ve done it the same old way,” Johnson added. “Exempt most programs, take a look at a couple, tweak them a little bit, try and rely on a CBO score, and then have that score completely out of context with anything that really we ought to be talking about, like the $22 trillion of additional deficit over the next ten years.”
Prior to the bill being passed by the House, Johnson wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal on May 12, calling out its “unsustainable federal spending” and asking for Trump and Congress to reconsider its push.
“By immediately passing a bill based on the Senate’s original budget resolution, we can fund border security and defense priorities and bank $850 billion in real spending reductions. The next step would be to pass a bill that extends current tax law to prevent the automatic 2026 tax increase, and avoids default by including a smaller increase in the debt ceiling that maintains the pressure and leverage to achieve future spending reductions,” Johnson wrote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday he believes there’s a “workable path” to secure 51 votes by July 4, but he cannot afford to lose more than three GOP senators.
In addition to Johnson, Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri, John Curtis of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota are among those raising concerns over various issues in the bill.
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The only bill I want to see is to drastically cut spending.
If there is this true concern for spending cuts then amend the constitution capping spending at 3% gdp, do like us regular folks do and live within your means.
If they are serious, pass the President’s bill. Then start work immediately on the cuts and freezes they want for the budget. Since he said it take a long time to get it done, They will have at least locked in the tax reforms and the other good things in the OBBB, and they can concentrate on more reforms and reductions for the next bill. No law says they can’t do it in stages. If they hold up this bill too long, they are just attention hogs working for the Deep State, the Demoncrats and the Communists. Label them as the traitors they are, and then primary them out of existence.
This should be easy, just go back to the last budget pre-Covid. Eliminate all Federal dollars for illegals and all the Biden spending spree. Make the current tax rates permanent. Should just about balance the budget.
Raising our debt up another up to 5.2 trillion dollars, is NO Big Beautiful Bill. Wow. When does it become real money? Meanwhile Russia has NO debt and runs on a balanced budget. And we’re supposed to hate these people? If you’re too stupid to put it together? THE USA IS DOOMED.