Freshman Sen. Ron Johnson said Wednesday he will try to block any move by the Senate to recess tomorrow in advance of the Fourth of July holiday, saying lawmakers should remain in session to work on the budget and spending issues.
Johnson’s comments come a day after he took to the Senate floor vowing to block regular business unless Democrats advance a budget plan.
“We’re just trying to ratchet up the pressure on Democratic leadership, who controls what we do by and large,” the Oshkosh Republican said in an interview. “I’m doing this to make a point, to make sure we start turning our attention to the budget.”
...Johnson was joined by nine GOP colleagues at a press conference Wednesday demanding the Senate stay in session.
It is so refreshing to finally have someone like Ron Johnson representing me in the U.S. Senate.
What a tremendous improvement over Russ Feingold!
Ron Johnson presents real hope and change. __________________
Ron Johnson isn't satisfied with business as usual in Washington.
He may be new in the U.S. Senate but he isn't afraid to shake things up.
He knows changes are needed in Washington. He wants to be part of the solution.
Video of Johnson speaking on the floor of the Senate, June 28, 2011:
SENATOR RON JOHNSON: “Mr. President, I ask to be allowed to speak for up to ten minutes.
“Thank you.
“Mr. President, I've been here for almost six months now.
“But I've been carefully watching Washington for more than 32 years, while operating my manufacturing business in Oshkosh, Wisconsin - watching how increasingly broken Washington has become over the years.
“Nothing I've seen in the last six months changes that evaluation.
“Washington is broken and America is going broke.
“Our economy is in a coma; people are suffering.
“America hungers for leadership, and it it’s not getting any - not from President Obama, not from the United States Senate.
“We can't afford to have a broken political process - not now - not while America is hurtling toward a financial crisis.
“Under Democratic leadership, it has been over two years since the United States Senate has passed a budget, and there is currently no mark-up going on in the Budget Committee to produce one.
“America is going bankrupt, and the Senate refuses to pass a budget.
“The President's budget - the one he presented several months ago to great fanfare, remember that? It was 4 ¼ inches thick, 2,400 pages long. Who knows how many thousands of man hours that document took to produce? It was going to be the solution to our fiscal problems.
“But it was so unserious, it would have added over $12 trillion to our nation’s debt.
“It was so unserious, when it was voted on in the United States Senate, it lost by a vote of ZERO to 97.
“It was so unserious, that not a single member of the President's own party voted for it.
“Instead of rolling up his shirt sleeves and personally tackling the number one problem facing this nation right from the beginning, President Obama delegated his role in sporadic negotiations to Vice President Biden.
“Now that those talks have broken down, the President is finally getting personally involved in this process.
“But what kind of process is this – a few people, talking behind closed doors, far from the view of the American public? Is that the process that is going to decide the fate of America’s financial situation, of our financial future? Is this how our government is supposed to work?
“I don’t think so.
“Of course not.
“Unfortunately, this has become business as usual in Washington.
“As a manufacturer, I know if the process is bad, the product will be bad.
“Business as usual here in Washington is a bad process.
“Business as usual is bankrupting America.
“It must stop.
“America is simply too precious to subject our financial future to Washington’s ‘business as usual.’
“Now I'm pretty new here, and I don't pretend to understand everything that makes the Senate work (or maybe more accurately, doesn’t allow the Senate to work). But I do know the Senate runs on something called unanimous consent.
“So unless we receive some assurance from the Democrat leadership that we will actually start addressing our budget out in the open, in the bright light of day - I will begin to object. I will begin to withhold my consent.
“The Senate needs to pass a budget. It shouldn't be that difficult.
“Families do it every day. A husband earns $40,000. A wife earns $40,000. Their total family income is $80,000. That's their budget. That's what they can afford to spend. American families figure out how to live within their means.
“The federal government should be no different. A budget is a number. We should first pick one number, and then a set of numbers, that won't let America go bankrupt.
“So let me start the process by throwing out a number: $2.6 trillion. This is $800 billion more than we spent just 10 years ago. That is the amount that President Obama, in his budget, says the federal government will receive in revenue next year. If we only spent that amount of money, we would be living within our means. What a concept, huh?
“If we want to spend more than $2.6 trillion, Members of Congress and members of this Administration should go before Congressional committees and openly justify what they want to spend, how much they want to borrow, and how much debt they are willing to pile on the backs of our children, our grandchildren, and our great grandchildren.
“They should explain just how much of our children’s future they are willing to mortgage.
“The American people deserve to be told the truth.
“Unless that happens, I will begin to withhold my consent.
“Unless there is some assurance that the Senate will take up its budget responsibilities in an open process, I will begin to object.
“Madame President, I note the absence of a quorum.”
“America has been an exceptional force for good in this world and we should never apologize for it. At the same time, we are running a $1.5 trillion deficit, and we must re-think our spending in all areas. We have to re-evaluate, but we have to do it in a sensible manner. What gains have been made in Afghanistan – as tenuous as they may be – have been paid with a very high price, in terms of the sacrifice of the finest among us. We have to make sure those gains are consolidated, and not lost. The Afghan people are like folks everywhere. They want peace. They want freedom. At some point, they have to fight for it, and I am very encouraged that so many are willing do so.”
Patrick McIlheran is joining Senator Ron Johnson's staff.
Patrick McIlheran, a columnist for the Journal Sentinel's op-ed page since 2004, is leaving the newspaper this week to take a job with Republican Sen. Ron Johnson's staff.
McIlheran, who will work out of Johnson's Washington, D.C., office, will research issues and write about them for the senator. McIlheran also will work for the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, of which Johnson is the ranking member.
McIlheran's last column for the paper is scheduled to be published Sunday.
This is a good news/bad news thing.
McIlheran will be an asset for Johnson, and in turn, the Wisconsinites that Johnson represents.
Unfortunately, Southeastern Wisconsin is losing an important conservative voice with McIlheran's departure.
I hope the Journal Sentinel considers finding someone else to express a conservative viewpoint. It should be a top priority.
I also wish McIlheran great success in Washington.
This is why I voted for Ron Johnson and why I'm so glad he's representing me in the U.S. Senate:
Way to go, Ron!
Wisconsin needs to elect someone like Ron Johnson to fill the seat now occupied by Herb Kohl, retiring after an agonizingly long tenure in the Senate. We can't replace Kohl with a Leftist.
The 2012 election will have long-term consequences for the economic well-being of Americans. The outcome of the 2012 election is critical.
We can't afford to continue the policies of Obama and the Democrats. It's as simple as that.
“Thank you Mr. President. It is my honor to represent the good people of Wisconsin in the United States Senate. It is an awesome responsibility - a responsibility I take very seriously.
“Today, it is my distinct privilege to address this historic body for the first time. It is a moment in time when our nation is in peril. Not only do we continue to face the very real threat of international terrorism, but we also face a threat of our own making - one that challenges the very foundation of this republic.
“Our nation was founded on the basis of God-given rights and individual liberty. The genius of our Founding Fathers’ vision was rooted in their recognition that more often than not, government was something to fear. Government necessarily limited individual freedom, and therefore, government itself must be limited; its potential for growth, highly constrained.
“During America’s first century, this vision was largely upheld. The last century, however, has been an entirely different story.
“In 1902, the federal government spent 2% of the nation’s gross domestic product. State and local governments spent 5%. Government was close to the governed. The size, scope, and cost of the federal government was constrained by the Constitution’s enumerated powers. The individual was preeminent, and government’s role was modest and pedestrian.
“This body played a key role in limiting federal government expansion. Debate in the Senate was unlimited. The cloture vote did not exist. As George Washington had said, the Senate really was the saucer that cooled the tea.
“All that changed in the 20th century’s second decade. The Senate adopted the cloture vote, and America adopted the 16th Amendment. The federal government now had the power to tax income, and the Senate had made it easier for government to grow. And guess what, government grew.
“It grew in reaction to real problems. Trusts had been formed that concentrated power and created monopolies that threatened free-markets. Capital did exert too much power over labor. Balance was needed.
“And as our nation’s prosperity grew, the elimination of poverty and retirement insecurity became a public responsibility. Private charity was simply deemed not up to the task.
“So government acted and government grew. From 2% in 1902 to today, where the federal government spends 25% of our nation’s economy, and combined, all levels of government in the U.S. now consume 39%. By comparison, the size of government in Norway is 40%; in Greece, 47%; and in France, 53%. In the end, I don’t believe Americans want to be like France or Greece. We haven’t reached that tipping point yet, but we are extremely close.
“There is a reason America holds 5% of the world’s population, and yet accounts for 24% of the world’s GDP. It is because of freedom, the free market system, and the American people.
“America became a land of unlimited opportunity because we were a nation of self-reliant people. Hard work was valued, personal responsibility expected, and success was celebrated, not demonized. I grew up in that America.
“I am sad to say, what I have witnessed during my lifetime, is a slow but steady drift, and I would argue over the last two years, a lurch, toward a culture of entitlement and dependency. This is not an America I recognize. It is not an America that will work.
“Even worse, we have granted entitlements and encouraged dependency with little thought as to how we would pay for it. We have racked up enormous debt, and now the bill is coming due.
“Time is running out. Last week, the government almost shut down because we were arguing over a few billion dollars. But our debt and deficits are measured in the trillions. Our problem is a thousand times larger than the current debate.
“Most of us recognize this is simply unsustainable. Most of us know what programs need to be reformed. And most of us want to fix the problem. So let’s start addressing these issues now, before it is too late.
“These are enormous problems, and it is easy to be pessimistic. But there is reason to be hopeful.
“I’ve done a fair amount of traveling throughout Wisconsin over the last year, speaking to all kinds of people: Republicans, Democrats, union members and Tea Party folks. I talked about America. About how incredibly precious and exceptional it is, and how I fear we may be losing it.
“What I will never forget is how many people came up to me after my speeches with tears in their eyes, or tears rolling down their cheeks. Not because I’m a great public speaker, but because people love this country. Their political affiliation makes absolutely no difference. Americans want this nation preserved, and they are counting on us to do just that. The good news is that they will support us, if we make the hard choices together.
“So together, let’s roll up our sleeves, and do what needs to be done.
“Mr. President, I yield the floor.”
I am so thankful that I have Ron Johnson representing me in the U.S. Senate.
Finally, FINALLY, the long Wisconsin nightmare of Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold is over.
