Sen. Johnson Tears into ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’: ‘This Is Immoral What Us Old Farts Are Doing to Our Young People’

KERNEN: “So let’s say that, you know, you stick to your guns here, but at this point, if I characterize what you want to do as a long shot, is that overstating it? I mean, I can see Senator Thune —”
Johnson: “No.”
KERNEN: “— Majority Leader Thune — it’s not a long shot.”
Johnson: “No, it’s not a long shot because we have enough of us who are going to say no. Listen, we all —”
KERNEN: “You do?”
Johnson: “— support the president. We want to see him succeed. Yes, we want to see him succeed. You know, we want — but again, my loyalty is to our kids and grandkids. We’re mortgaging their future. So there’s enough of us who have that attitude that very respectfully, we just have to say, Mr. President, I’m sorry. One big, beautiful bill was not the best idea. We should have done what John Thune always wanted to do, split this up into multiple parts. I always said three parts. He said two. Time’s crunched. Now it’s back down to two parts, uses of two budget reconciliations, but you need to keep enough on the table to force us to come back here and do the work, take the time to actually reduce spending to a reasonable level.”
KERNEN: “How would that even — I mean, the Senate is going to look at the House version and the Senate’s going to do with its own version. It’s — it’s — it just seems like it’s in motion already. And — [crosstalk]”
Johnson: “Well, again —”
KERNEN: “Go ahead.”
Johnson: “So — so the president — the president, Senate leadership has to understand that we’re serious. They all say, oh, we can pressure these guys. No, you can’t. Again, we’re — we’re being very respectful. You know, I ran in 2010 as part of the Tea Party movement. We were mortgaging children’s future. We were $14 trillion in debt then. Now we’re over $37 trillion. We’re serious about this. They need to take us seriously. Don’t insult us. Work with us. Lay out the numbers. If you — if you can say that our numbers are wrong, fine, let’s work through it. But again, every — every my — every analysis I have, there’s greater upside risk to that deficit. Interest rates are moving up. If we go increase interest rates one percent, that’s another $4 trillion over 10 years in terms of deficit. If we don’t replace the $4 trillion, that’s $4 trillion of lost revenue, again. And in growing the economy three percent, it adds to it a little bit, but mostly in the out years. So again, come to the table. Let’s look at the numbers. If I’m wrong, prove that I’m wrong, but let’s do it with respect, but mainly respect for our children and grandchildren. This is immoral what us old farts are doing to our young people. This is grotesque what we’re doing. We need to own up to that. This is our moment. I can’t accept this scenario. I can’t accept it. So I won’t vote for it unless we are serious about fixing it.”
KERNEN: “And who do you think — OK, Rand Paul, you, it would still pass. Who else are you —““
QUICK: “Mike Lee.”
KERNEN: “— are you talking — Mike Lee — who else are you talking about, senator?”
Johnson: “Again, I don’t want to speak for others, but yeah, Mike Lee —”
KERNEN: “Your gang of five. Gang — what was —”
Johnson: “— Rick Scott. We’ve been — I think there are a lot of — there are a lot of people that aren’t as vocal as — as we are that support what we’re doing. And again, they can’t dispute the numbers. Again, we didn’t talk about numbers in the — in the — in the House process. You know, if the White House just comes and starts insulting us, I’m sorry, I got the numbers to back — back myself up. Again, if my numbers are wrong, fine, prove me wrong. But I think I have the numbers, which is, I think, one of the reasons they probably won’t insult me. And that’s good.”