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.
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“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.”
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“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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