Exclusive — Sen. Ron Johnson on Spending Deal: ‘Democrats Hold All the Cards’

Democrats unfortunately “hold all the cards” on the spending deal battle as they have the legacy media on their side and some Democrat votes are needed for a CR to pass, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily.

“But this is insanity dysfunction here,” he said, discussing the original spending deal. “But unfortunately, the Democrats hold all the cards.”

He said that is largely because the establishment media is on their side, which will then blame a government shutdown on Republicans despite the fact that it is Democrats that largely resist “reasonable fiscal controls.”

“They have all the leverage, because the legacy corporate media is always on their side. No matter how much they’re at fault or resisting some reasonable fiscal controls when we stop mortgaging our kids’ future, if government shuts down, the Republicans are gonna get blamed. So from my standpoint, just avoid it, but don’t load up continuing resolutions with a bunch of crap,” he said, noting that, unfortunately, that is what has happened.

When pressed on how Democrats have the leverage, Johnson explained that the speaker needs some of their votes because there is a handful of Republicans in the House who will not support a continuing resolution (CR) of any kind.

“We have Republicans that simply will not vote for a continuing resolution. …  They’re just utterly opposed to it. And so he needs some Democrat votes in the House. I don’t envy Speaker Johnson’s position,” he said.

LISTEN:

While the senator said it is a tough position to be in, he said, “rather than negotiate with the Democrats behind closed doors, what he ought to be doing is just laying it out for the public.

“Say, ‘Listen, what we’re going to do here is we’re going to just pass a clean continuing resolution. We’ll spend at last year’s levels. We’re not going to load any junk onto it. We are just all about avoiding a shutdown so we can get our act together,'” he said.

“Go and win the political argument. It drives me nuts. I’m an accountant, but I’m basically a sales guy and you know, just sell what your program is, and what Republicans’ program is here is we’re trying to prevent the bankrupting of this country, the mortgaging of our children’s future. And we don’t like shutdowns either, so we’re willing to go along with just last year’s spending, but we don’t want to jump it up with a bunch of special interest crap,” he said, concluding that’s how Speaker Johnson should go, as it is an easy argument to win.

Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.