Exclusive Interview: Senator Ron Johnson Sounds the Alarm on Runaway Federal Spending – Proposes Return to Pre-Pandemic Budget Levels

By Sara Andrew

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a striking interview this week, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) pulled back the curtain on Washington’s reckless spending habits, calling for a return to fiscal sanity by rolling back the federal budget to pre-pandemic levels. His message was clear: Congress has no oversight process for total spending, and the American people are footing the bill.

A Spending Crisis No One Understands

Johnson didn’t mince words when describing Washington’s financial dysfunction. “We’re the largest financial entity in the world, and literally no one knows what our total spending is,” he said.

Three years ago, during an omnibus spending debate, Johnson asked his Republican colleagues a simple question: “How much did we spend last year?” Silence. He then posed the same question to the Washington press corps. The best guess? “Over a trillion dollars.”

The reality? $6.5 trillion—and climbing.

In 2019, federal spending was 4.4 trillion. Then came the pandemic, which Johnson described as a “massive spending spree” that never ended. This year, the U.S. will spend 4.4 trillion. Then came the pandemic, which Johnson described as a “massive spending spree” that never ended. This year, the U.S. will spend 7.3 trillion—a staggering 63% increase from 2019.

“No family, after borrowing $50,000 for a medical emergency, would keep borrowing that same amount every year after the crisis passed,” Johnson said. “That’s insanity. Yet that’s exactly what Washington is doing.”

A Return to Reasonable Spending

Johnson’s solution? Return to a pre-pandemic baseline, adjusted for inflation and population growth. He pointed to bipartisan budget precedents, like the 1998 surplus (passed 77-22 in the Senate with support from McConnell, Grassley, Schumer, and Durbin) or the spending levels under Obama (2014) and Trump (2019).

“If we used this year’s Social Security, Medicare, and interest expenses—and even kept Medicaid untouched—we’d land between 5.5 and 5.5and 6.5 trillion,” he explained. “That’s reasonable.

Yet instead of cutting waste, the House is starting negotiations at $7.3 trillion, engaging in what Johnson called “death by a thousand cuts.”

A Radical Transparency Fix

To force accountability, Johnson proposed a Budget Review Panel—composed of Senate, House, and OMB officials—to scrutinize every line item in the federal budget.

“There are 2,400 lines in this year’s budget,” he said. “We should ask every department: ‘Why are you spending more than a fully inflated 2019 level?’ If they can’t justify it, we dial it back.”

He compared it to private-sector oversight: “In business, this would be a five-minute conversation. Managers would be told: ‘You get inflation-adjusted increases—nothing more.’ If they overspent, they’d be fired or forced to cut back.”

Will Washington Listen?

Johnson admitted his plan faces resistance—even from Republicans. “My colleagues tune me out. They say, ‘We can’t cut $800 billion.’ But we’re not cutting. We’re returning to a reasonable baseline.”

The good news? He recently pitched the idea to President Trump, who reportedly “loved the concept.” But with the House Speaker demanding the Senate adopt an inadequate budget resolution (“only $150 billion in annual cuts”), Johnson remains skeptical.

“Washington is an alternate universe,” he said. “But if we don’t fix this, we’re bankrupting America.”

Beyond spending, Johnson briefly addressed recent controversies (dismissing media “hysteria” over administrative missteps) and praised new leadership efforts toward radical transparency. But his central warning was unmistakable:

“We’ve never scrutinized spending like this. If we did, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

For taxpayers drowning in debt, Johnson’s message is a wake-up call. The question is: Will Washington hear it?