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Ron Johnson: “Try and control other spending in the federal government…”

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 34:49

Thanks, Diane. What's your question? How do you plan to ensure the long term solvency of Social Security programs while protecting benefits for current and future retirees? Try and control other spending in the federal government, which is what I've been fighting for since I got here. Now unfortunately, this is a Republican leader is quoted saying this show me a member of Congress, whoever lost the election because they spent too much money. (34:49–34:55)

CLAIM

Asserts that he has been advocating for controlling federal government spending.

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
“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
“This year we're butting up against spending 24% of GDP at the federal government level.”
Senator Ron Johnson's 126th Telephone Town Hall: Addressing Government Shutdowns, Immigration, and Fiscal Policies | Uploaded July 28, 2025 | 35:58-36:04
“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