(The Center Square) – Wisconsin GOP U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson struggles to understand why the looming debt ceiling crisis has morphed into what it has.
“I’ve called this a phony crisis, and it is,” Johnson told WisPolitics. “If you had a responsible treasury secretary, a responsible president, they would take default off the table.”
With the situation now being just days away from potential default, Johnson said he’s still uncertain if he would vote in favor of any last-minute compromise brokered between GOP leaders and the White House.
“We have more than enough money to talk about any kind of default, so let’s stop talking about it,” he said.
While much is still be determined in the ongoing negotiations that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has set a June 1 deadline for before a default could occur, Johnson said one thing that’s certain is that President Joe Biden and Democrats will not get all they want in the talks.
“A clean bill’s not going to happen,” he said. “I would support the House bill right now. That was my guarantee to House conservatives.”
Johnson deems a House Republican bill that seeks to cut spending in exchange for raising the debt ceiling "eminently reasonable," adding he is urging all his GOP colleagues to stand united in favor of the measure.
"What the House conservatives did, what the House passed, is an eminently reasonable package," he told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "And it’s almost the bare minimum of what we should expect if we’re going to increase the debt ceiling and further mortgage our kids’ future."
Democrats have remained united in opposition to the House plan, branding the bill as a "hard-right ransom note" that only moves the country closer to catastrophe.
