Sen. Johnson says his party gets credit for prosperity, everyone to blame for deficits

Low unemployment, solid economic growth, fewer regulations — all examples Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson points to as reasons to elect lawmakers to go to Washington from his party in November.

Johnson does not blame Republicans for the blooming federal deficits, however. He says the highest federal budget deficits just reported by the Trump administration aren’t a symptom of the massive federal tax cuts signed into law last year by President Donald Trump but more the unwillingness of his colleagues to rein in spending in programs, like Medicare that are “unsustainable.

“The problem with this is,” Johnson said on WIZM, “on both sides of the aisle, people always want to get re-elected — that’s certainly never been my motivation — and what helps get re-elected is keep promising people benefits and you certainly don’t ever talk about what you need to do to reform some of these programs that are simply unsustainable.”

Johnson says Medicare is a program that will increasingly spend way more than it takes in.