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Ron Johnson: “This year we're butting up against spending 24% of GDP at…”

Featuring: Ron Johnson, Republican | U.S. Senate, Wisconsin

Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies

Published July 28, 2025 | Video Starts at 35:58

I mean, we're not going to spend at 41% of our economy. So they actually dropped it by 1948 down to 11.4%. This year we're butting up against spending 24% of GDP at the federal government level. back to 1930, we're at 3.5% before Franklin, FDR's New Deal, which dramatically grew government. And of course governments never look back. We just keep growing it. (35:58–36:04)

CLAIM

Asserts that current federal government spending is approaching 24% of GDP.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Ron Johnson

“The vast majority of government, even in what they call government shutdown, doesn't shut down well over 90% continues on because it's…”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 03:34-03:44
“We have not confirmed one of Trump's nominees by unanimous consent. That's the first time, I think, in history that's happened.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 04:55-05:03
“During World War II, we hit a high of 41% [of the economy].”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 35:38-35:42
“Before Franklin, FDR's New Deal, [federal government spending] was at 3.5% [of the economy].”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 36:07-36:11
“The preventing government Shutdown Act [was passed] as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in, I think…”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 02:00-02:12
“Right now, there's over 130 people waiting in line just to be confirmed.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 05:44-05:48
“The Senate ought to do is go into full recess. A full recess. So President Trump can just do recess appointments.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 06:04-06:11
“The Abandonment of the COVID injection injured and the vaccine injured [has been a focus of my investigations].”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 07:10-07:19
“We're going to continue to investigate the corruption, the capture of our federal health agencies because that impacts every American.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 07:55-08:04
“We went from 4.4 trillion to over $7 trillion from 2019 to this year. Totally unjustified.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 10:41-10:49
“We got about 1 1/2 trillion dollars of additional spending reduction. Historic in nature.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 10:51-10:57
“I've never voted for an authorization for use of military force.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 11:52-11:56
“I did vote for the first, I think it was $40 billion of support for Ukraine right as the war started.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 12:03-12:05
“I haven't supported any past that point in time in terms of support for Israel.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 12:13-12:19
“75% of the budget is what they call mandatory spending.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 13:55-13:58
“We spend about a trillion dollars a year in other mandatory which in my mind should really be discretionary.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 14:13-14:20
“The budget would have been somewhere between 5.5 and $6.5 trillion versus the 7 trillion.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 15:03-15:09
“In Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, they're getting liberal governance which doesn't work out well.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 18:08-18:15
“It's not California, it's not those liberal states. It's Texas, it's Florida, it's Tennessee. It's states that have responsible leaders.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 18:15-18:26
“These files have been in the hands of, let's put this way, a Department of Justice I didn't necessarily trust.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 20:28-20:34
“We either stay in session to do as many [confirmations] as we can do, or we go into a real recess.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 22:04-22:11
“Let President Trump staff his administration.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 22:16-22:19
“With the obstruction Democrats have thrown out there, I say go to full recess, do recess appointments.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 22:35-22:43
“There are awful lot of leftist attorneys in the [Department of Justice] and they just quit.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 23:53-23:58
“Judge Troopas... represented President Trump... AG Josh Call, is now criminalizing what his department approved.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 24:12-24:45
“Judge Troop has spent, I think, probably over a million dollars. They are trying to destroy him through lawfare.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 24:51-24:58
“We've got a huge hole in the Department of Justice, hundreds of attorneys, and they can't fill that hole.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 25:09-25:15
“Hamas still has control and steals all the, all the humanitarian relief.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 26:45-26:50
“Who started this war was Hamas by butchering 1700 people, Iran by supporting Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 26:59-27:09
“In the first Trump administration, I was working with Mike Lee, Jared Kushner and the administration on fixing our legal immigration system.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 29:02-29:11
“President Trump actually unveiled [a concept for fixing the legal immigration system] in the Rose Garden.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 29:14-29:17
“President Trump wanted to take care of the DACA kids in that.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 29:23-29:27
“President Biden... threw open the borders and overwhelmed the immigration system.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 29:32-29:39
“Trump had pretty well secured the border by about April, May of 2020.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 29:42-29:51
“Millions, no, millions of true comp, but probably north of 10 million people in this country.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 30:12-30:17
“We certainly need to do the deportation of the criminals, the violent gang members, members of transnational criminal organizations, the…”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 30:21-30:31
“It's messy because of the massive mess that Biden and Democrats in Congress created by opening up our border.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 31:11-31:18
“I sent [President Trump] a pretty good article on this same thing in Wisconsin. We've got a big problem in not having enough workers.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 31:36-31:43
“We are a relatively high tax state now.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 33:08-33:12
“You're seeing an outflow from high tax states like New York, like California, into lower tax states that are booming like Texas and Florida.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 33:38-33:49
“Try and control other spending in the federal government, which is what I've been fighting for since I got here.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 34:49-34:55
“Prior to World War II, the federal government was consuming about 11.4% of our economy.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 35:32-35:38
“By 1948 [federal government spending] dropped down to 11.4% [of the economy].”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 35:54-35:56
“President Biden welcomed [criminals, members of violent gangs, members of transnational criminal organizations, the human, the drug, the sex…”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 38:32-38:36
“We just had an instance in Wisconsin where two teenage girls lost their lives because of a drunk driver who's in this country illegally.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 38:40-38:50
“What President Biden and Democrats in Congress by opening our borders, the clear and present danger, the violence, the rapes, the murders…”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 38:59-39:09
“The most damaging element [of Obamacare] is the Obamacare addition to Medicaid, which is completely distorted and put at risk benefits for…”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 39:59-40:09
“Medicaid costs [have been raised] by hundreds of billions of dollars, putting at risk Medicaid for the vulnerable.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 40:29-40:35
“What Obamacare did is it forced those individuals, about 5, 6% of the American population who buy individual policies to bear the full cost…”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 40:42-40:54
“We didn't simplify the tax code and the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. We made it more complex.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 44:43-44:49
“I was able to fight to make sure that 95% of American businesses also got a tax cut.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 44:50-44:56
“One of the concessions I wrangled out of voting yes for this in the end was a considered effort on the part of the Finance Committee to…”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 45:30-45:42