Republicans' most urgent duty in the Senate as President-elect Donald Trump starts his first days in office is to confirm his administration officials "so he can fulfill the promises he made to the American public," Sen. Ron Johnson told Newsmax Saturday.
"From President Trump's standpoint, he has to secure the border," the Wisconsin Republican said on Newsmax's "America Right Now." "And everything we are hearing in, in the in-person meetings with him and with his nominees, they are absolutely dedicated to doing that."
Johnson said he was particularly pleased Friday when Treasury Secretary-nominee Scott Bessent declared during his confirmation hearing that the United States government doesn't have a revenue problem, but a spending problem.
"I've been using my charts and graphs showing that we spent $4.4 trillion in 2019," said Johnson. "In the last five years, we've averaged $6.5 trillion, more than 50% higher, but we haven't returned to pre-pandemic levels. I'm hoping President Trump and his administration take that seriously."
Meanwhile, Trump has called for one "beautiful" bill to be passed to forward his agenda on immigration, taxes, and other key issues, but Johnson said he favors legislation to be passed in two steps.
"We need to provide him the funding for the full four years to secure the border, the top priority, and that will be relatively easy," he said. "The larger tax package and spending package is going to be more complex."
He added that Americans can "rest easy" on taxes, though, as Republicans are dedicated to making sure there will not be a massive automatic tax increase in 2026.
"From my standpoint, I'd like to take that time to simplify and rationalize our tax code," Johnson said.
He added, however, that he believes the next priority after securing the border is bringing down the nation's spending levels.
"Right now, we're spending about $7 trillion a year," he said. "[This is] completely unjustified, completely unsustainable. We've got to get back to some pre-pandemic levels.
"I've laid out a couple of options, you know, using baseline years of Bill Clinton, you know, increasing that by population growth, inflation, using today's Social Security, Medicare, and interest. That would put us at $5.5 trillion. We'd have a balanced budget."
Johnson on Saturday also spoke out about the efforts President Joe Biden has been making to secure his legacy.
"Stated simply, President Biden is probably the worst and most corrupt president in U.S. history," he said. "It's literally that simple. Open borders, massive deficit spending when we didn't have to do it, sparking 40-year high inflation."
Further, the "embarrassing and dangerous surrender in Afghanistan that emboldened our enemies and set the world on fire" is part of Biden's legacy, the senator said.
Biden this past week spoke out against "oligarchs" in the government, but Johnson said that under him, "we've had an oligarchy made up of radical leftist billionaires."
Johnson also spoke out about the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas, and said that he does not know how an equitable agreement can be reached after the Hamas attack in October 2023.
"If Israel is pressured into ending this before they've actually destroyed Hamas, that concerns me," he said. "But again, I don't know all the details and nobody can really predict the future here."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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