Senate pushes fast approval for Trump’s team picks


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Sen. Ron Johnson emphasized that the most pressing responsibility for Republicans in the Senate is to confirm Trump’s administration officials swiftly. This would enable the President-elect to deliver on the promises he made to the American people during his campaign.

Johnson highlighted securing the border as a top priority for Trump’s administration, stating, “And everything we are hearing in, in the in-person meetings with him and with his nominees, they are absolutely dedicated to doing that.”

During the confirmation hearing for Treasury Secretary-nominee Scott Bessent, Johnson expressed satisfaction when Bessent declared that the United States government does not face a revenue problem but rather a spending problem. “I’ve been using my charts and graphs showing that we spent $4.4 trillion in 2019,” Johnson said. “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.”

While Trump has called for a single comprehensive bill to address his agenda on immigration, taxes, and other key issues, Johnson favors a two-step approach. He suggested, “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. The larger tax package and spending package is going to be more complex.”

Johnson assured that Americans can “rest easy” on taxes, as Republicans are committed to preventing a massive automatic tax increase in 2026. “From my standpoint, I’d like to take that time to simplify and rationalize our tax code,” he added.

However, Johnson emphasized that after securing the border, the next priority should be reducing 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 also criticized President Joe Biden’s legacy, stating, “Stated simply, President Biden is probably the worst and most corrupt president in U.S. history. It’s literally that simple. Open borders, massive deficit spending when we didn’t have to do it, sparking 40-year high inflation.”

He further cited the “embarrassing and dangerous surrender in Afghanistan that emboldened our enemies and set the world on fire” as part of Biden’s legacy.

Johnson also addressed Biden’s recent remarks about “oligarchs” in the government, saying, “under him, we’ve had an oligarchy made up of radical leftist billionaires.”

Regarding the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Johnson expressed uncertainty about the prospects for an equitable agreement 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.”