Wisconsin’s Republican senator recently made controversial comments saying that he did not want any new coronavirus stimulus agreements with new spending, saying “I hope the talks remain broken down.”
Senator Ron Johnson clarified those comments on WTMJ’s Steve Scaffidi Show Thursday, saying that the federal government has already authorized “more than enough” spending.
“Before we go ahead and authorize trillions more…why don’t we take a look at redirecting, repurposing money that hasn’t even been spent?” said Johnson about the CARES Act approved in April which, in the end, is expected to cost the federal government at least $3 trillion. “Let’s analyze what we’ve already spent, what worked, what didn’t work, and let’s figure out how to spend the remaining $1.2 to $1.5 trillion better.”
Johnson claims that as Democrats are asking for nearly $1 trillion in new COVID-19 relief for state governments, they have only spent one-sixth of the amount already allocated to them in the CARES Act.
“Democrats want to allocate another $1 trillion to states. We’ve already allocated $150 billion. States have only spent 25 percent of that,” said Johnson.
“They want to keep that money for next year’s budget…they want a bailout.”