Titanic-sinker or GOP ‘salesman’? A Senate fiscal hawk grabs a critical gavel
Senator Ron Johnson jumps right into the legislative train wreck.
The Wisconsin Republican cut his teeth as a fiscal hawk willing to anger his own party in pursuit of his deficit-cutting dreams. Now, following the death of Lindsey Graham, Johnson is poised to take over as the Senate Budget Committee and take on a major role in spearheading the GOP’s current push to pass another party spending bill.
In theory, this rise would give Johnson something he has long wanted: a megaphone to support the spending-restraint agenda that he has struggled to gain ground with.
“I wish Lindsey were alive,” Johnson said in an interview. “That’s not how you want to be head of the budget. But put that aside; you know, it’s a role that I think I’m quite well-suited for.”
His new reality is challenging, however, as he finds himself in the middle of a complex intraparty fight over how to develop a compromise bill that overcomes filibusters to fund the Iran war and enact parts of the so-called SAFE America Act.
House Republicans want to pass a budget plan for that bill this week, pitting fiscal conservatives who want spending offsets against defense hawks and lawmakers with ties to farm states who say the framework won’t spend enough for their priorities. Senate GOP leaders are bracing for a monumental headache.
And just a few days ago Johnson would probably have linked arms with deficit hawks to demand change, but things are different now. The soon-to-be Budget chief must instead reconcile his ambitions of being a squeaky wheel from the sidelines with his new responsibility to help craft a deal that the leadership can sell to skeptical colleagues as the midterms fast approach.
“It’s not going to be easy. My first effort will be to try to get everyone on the same page,” Johnson said. “I worked in the private sector for about 30 years and sold plastics, so my main skills are as a salesman. That’s what you have to do, which is to convince people.”
As a dealmaker, Johnson would make a U-turn from last year, when the three-term Republican briefly threatened to help block the One Big Beautiful Bill while pushing for higher spending cuts; HE He repeatedly compared his tax-and-spend megabill to the Titanic.
For many of his colleagues, those tactics were a throwback to 2017, when he vowed to oppose the GOP’s tax-cut package until he got better treatment in the bill for “pass-through” businesses — mostly private companies — before making a deal.
Johnson has also long felt free to antagonize his own party, using his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and an investigative subcommittee on top issues ignored by Senate leadership (namely conspiracies around the Biden family). September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the safety of the Covid-19 vaccine.
But Johnson told colleagues during a closed lunch last week that, as Budget chair, he would listen to the Senate GOP Conference and act in its best interests, according to Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a fiscal hawk.
“It’s not just one person talking. I have a responsibility to my committee and the conference as well,” Johnson told reporters about how he will handle his new role.
After all, Johnson recently witnessed what can happen when the chairman of a key committee doesn’t follow the party-line plans of GOP leaders: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.). cessation of negotiations He had decided that he wanted to spend less on the border security portion of last year’s compromise package than was within the leadership’s mandate.
Johnson is not yet officially chairman of the Budget Committee – that will happen in the coming days – but the seniority system guarantees he will get the job. He has already met with House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune; the second of these outlined the challenges that awaited Johnson in his efforts to pass the third compromise bill of the 119th Congress.
And even before Johnson returned to Washington following Graham’s death, he noted, fellow Wisconsinite and House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil used a joint flight to D.C. to pitch the senator on the feasibility of pursuing some election security stimulus measures through the Senate’s strict budget reconciliation rules.
“According to me [Johnson’s] Thune said in an interview that he would work in the best interest of the conference. “And I think he will consult not only with our allies in the Senate and committee members, but also with the House of Representatives.”
This doesn’t mean Johnson is in denial about his fiscal hawkish methods. Last week, he spoke with White House budget director Russ Vought, who has been a vocal proponent of crushing Democrats through the regular congressional appropriations process as a way to cut funding to federal agencies that run domestic programs.
Johnson also met with other conservatives in the Senate and members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, where they talked about ways to pay for the pending party bill.
Scott said in an interview that he understands that Johnson needs to represent the entire conference, but “that doesn’t mean he’s going to stop being a fiscal conservative.” Arrington added that Johnson is a “true budget hawk” who “genuinely cares about the fiscal health of our country.”
Johnson brings a completely different perspective to the top of the Budget Committee compared to Graham, who has often said he’s not sure why he was named chairman of the panel.
Graham was better known for his national security portfolio and probably wouldn’t think twice about greenlighting a pile of new, uncompensated money for the military. Johnson, on the other hand, is so determined to argue for less spending among his agencies that more than a dozen tables on debt and deficit on the official website.
Bill Hoagland, long the GOP’s top budget aide in the Senate, predicted that the new president would eventually have a hard time converting his colleagues into deficit-wary evangelists.
“Not all the stars are very well aligned in terms of what Johnson wants to accomplish,” Hoagland said. “But bless his heart for being willing to make debt and deficits an issue.”
Johnson’s tenure on the panel may also be relatively brief: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who surpasses him in seniority, is expected to take over the committee in January if Republicans retain a majority outside the Judiciary Committee chair due to term limits.
But Johnson is already considering how he can put his stamp on the Budget Committee in all caps, and he said in an interview that he is in talks with staff about holding a hearing in a few weeks to “get the truth out on Medicaid” that could reveal allegations of fraud in the social safety net program.
And while he didn’t guarantee he could deliver what his allies wanted for the third compromise package — that at least some of the $95 billion package would be paid for — he predicted that the Senate would amend the House budget resolution, and some members of his panel believe they would seek a spending offset.
“This is something I’ve always insisted on,” he said. “I know we have other members who will insist on payment.”
Calen Razor contributed to this report.
