Congressional efforts to reach bipartisan agreement on another wave of stimulus legislation have ground to a halt.
While voters normally prefer to see legislators reach a compromise, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin argues we’ll all be better off if no deal is reached. “From my standpoint, the breakdown in the talks is very good news,” Johnson said in a Monday interview. “It’s very good news for future generations. I hope the talks remain broken down.”
The senator called the supercharged unemployment program, which pays 70% of unemployed people more to stay on welfare than they earned working, a “perverse incentive” and said that “we can’t continue it.” He concluded, “We don’t have an unlimited checking account, so I’m glad there’s not a deal.”
Suffice it to say that critics weren’t very happy with the senator’s candid remarks. For instance, Andrew Bates (a top adviser for Joe Biden) blasted Johnson in a tweet, asking, “How is this real? How does a member of the U.S. Senate say this as the pandemic rages, our economy sputters, and as tens of millions are out of work through no fault of their own?”
Wisconsin state Sen. Chris Larson, a Democrat, reacted to the news by writing that “the super rich are getting exactly what they paid for in [Ron Johnson].” Meanwhile, the press director for the Wisconsin Democrats claimed Johnson’s message to Wisconsinites was “you’re not suffering enough, let me help you out there.”
While Johnson’s stance may be controversial, he deserves credit, not condemnation, for considering the interests of future generations. It would be much easier to just buckle and go along with the avalanche of voices demanding a complete abandonment of fiscal conservatism in the name of compassion, but financial reality doesn’t simply disappear in the face of emotional demands.
The federal government is already set to run a $3.7 trillion deficit this year, or an astounding $25,820 per taxpayer, putting federal debt at $26.6 trillion. The $3.7 trillion is an unprecedented level of debt-financed spending, more than double the deficit we ran at the peak of the 2008 financial crisis. A round of additional legislation would pile on even more. The ballooning debt looming over future generations will doom us to face reduced economic growth, sluggish private sector investment, higher taxes to cover the massive annual interest payments, bankruptcy of entitlement programs such as Medicare, and potentially an all-out fiscal crisis.
Johnson also has reason to doubt that another costly stimulus bill would spend taxpayer money responsibly. The first bloated package, the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, created a broken unemployment system rife with fraud, sent billions in checks to dead people, and skewed benefits toward the wealthy and well-connected.
Moreover, it’s not even clear that more stimulus is needed in the first place. As Heritage Foundation budget expert Rachel Grezler explained, the new positive job numbers and falling unemployment rate suggest that we don’t need more stimulus. “While there is still a ways to go in getting Americans safely back to work, continued signs of recovery demonstrate why public health — not more ‘stimulus’ — should be the focus,” Grezler said. “Congress can’t force people to spend money at restaurants, hotels, or on airlines if they don’t yet feel comfortable doing so, and the enormous increase in household savings along with a $1.5 trillion rise in personal disposable income between April and June suggests that what Americans need most is not more government spending but rather the ability to safely return to work and schools.” All of this validates the substance of Johnson’s stance, no matter how emotionally people may respond to it.
The senator’s critics are quick to point out that he voted in favor of the GOP’s 2017 tax cut bill, even though it was projected to increase the debt by roughly $1 trillion over a decade. Yet, the merits of the bill aside, this is like comparing a pebble to a boulder. In the month of June alone, we ran an $846 billion deficit amid massive COVID-19 spending, meaning that in nearly one month, we spent as much as the tax cuts cost over 10 years.
Unfortunately, this kind of baseless backlash awaits any Republican legislator who actually sticks to fiscally conservative principles when it counts. Kudos to Johnson for not backing down like some of his colleagues.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education and a Washington Examiner contributor.