Johnson voted for the Trump bill he called immoral. His choice will devastate WI.

Yahoo

08-07-2025

Stunning. Absolutely stunning.In less than eight weeks, Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has completed the most consequential flip-flop in recent Wisconsin political history. Sadly, it's a flip-flop that will have devastating consequences on the fiscal future of our state and country.As the House of Representatives was preparing to pass its budget bill for fiscal year 2025 in May, Johnson got on his high horse and complained loudly about how much it would increase the nation's debt. In an opinion piece he wrote for the Wall Street Journal, he said he could not support the bill 'in its current form' because it increased annual deficits. He scolded and berated. He had a point. The House version would have increased the nations debt by $2.7 trillion according to the non partisan Congressional Budget Office. That's a huge increase.He was so adamant in his criticism that Sen. Lindsay Graham, Republican of South Carolina, described him as 'Mr. Smith goes to Washington very mad.'
To put that $2.7 trillion increase into perspective, note that the 2017 tax cut under President Trump increased the debt by $1 to 2 trillion, according to budget estimates. The 2019 COVID-19 relief bill passed under President Trump increased the debt by $1.9 trillion, according to nonpartisan estimates.
But here's the punchline. After stating he could not support the House bill because it increased the debt too much, he cast a deciding vote for the Senate bill that increases the debt by $3.4 trillion: that's $700 billion more than the House bill that he so loudly criticized!
Letters: Johnson has odd view on what saving the country means. He will cave to Trump.
In fact, the increase in the debt created by the Senate version of the budget is roughly equal to the increase in the debt from the 2017 tax bill and the 2019 Covid relief bill combined.
But who cares? We all should care. As a result of the exploding debt, we have to pay more interest on that debt.
According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, in fiscal year 2024, the U.S. spent $882 billion on interest payments to service its borrowing. In comparison, the total national defense discretionary spending for the same year was $874 billion, plus billions more in other important national security areas.
Our exploding debt will force our children to pay more for interest on that debt and squeeze out investments in defense, health care and education.
So what made Johnson so dramatically abandon the crusade he has waged against our debt for the past fifteen years? How did he go from the senator who said we cannot mortgage our children's future to the senator who cast the vote allowing the bill to pass after Vice President Vance's tie-breaking vote?Sadly, he switched his focus from our children's future to his own political future. He saw what happened when other Republican members of Congress crossed the president. And so the senator who had referred to Trump's bill as 'immoral' decided to turn down the rhetoric and stand with the Trump team.In the end, it was all about politics — swamp politics. Sen. Johnson has now completed his transformation from 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' to a full-fledged member of the swamp. And our children will have to pay more in the future as a direct result of his actions.
Tom Barrett is the former U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg, mayor of Milwaukee and Congressman.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Johnson supported Trump's bill to Wisconsin's detriment | Opinion