Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson leads Senate Republican opposition to Trump’s signature budget bill

A budget bill that would form the cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s agenda passed the U.S. House last week with support from all six of Wisconsin’s Republican members of Congress.

But Wisconsin’s Republican U.S. senator is now leading opposition to the legislation as it makes its way through that chamber.

Sen. Ron Johnson, a fiscal hawk, has criticized what Trump has dubbed the “big, beautiful bill,” which focuses on immigration and tax policy, and which independent analysts say will add trillions to the country’s deficit.

Over the weekend, Johnson made the rounds on television talk shows, saying that the bill must include significantly more spending cuts.

“You don’t defeat the deep state by funding it,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The first goal of our budget reconciliation process should be to reduce the deficit. This actually increases it.”

Johnson isn’t the only Republican senator criticizing the package, which would substantially rewrite tax code by expanding tax cuts on high earners, ending tax on tips and overtime and ending tax subsidies for clean energy. The bill also funds a wall across the U.S. border, expands military spending and spending on immigration enforcement, and cuts Medicaid and food assistance.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has criticized the bill’s $4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has been outspoken about prospective cuts to Medicaid.

The opposition is significant enough that U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson has hinted it could tank the whole project.

“It’s the Senate and the House Republicans together that will deliver this ball over the goal line, so to speak,” Speaker Johnson said on CBS News. “And I encouraged them to make as few modifications as possible, remembering that I have a very delicate balance.”

Sen. Johnson also said he thinks he has enough allies to reshape the bill.  

“I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about the spending reduction and reducing the deficit,” Johnson said on CNN.

Johnson’s criticism has been on the record for weeks. Speaking earlier this month at Wisconsin’s state GOP Convention, Johnson castigated the bill even as most other speakers called on their party to unite behind Trump’s agenda.

Johnson brought up slides pointing to how the tax policy changes would raise costs, and he called on federal spending to return to prepandemic levels.

“We’re mortgaging our children’s future. It is wrong. It is immoral. It has to stop,” he said. “The big, beautiful bill isn’t what it’s advertised to be.”

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill could increase the deficit by about $3.8 trillion over the next decade.

Johnson is rarely aligned with fellow Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat. But they both oppose this bill, albeit for different reasons. Baldwin and fellow Democrats have criticized how the legislation will affect programs like Medicaid and food assistance, arguing that Republicans are building tax cuts for the wealthy out of cuts to programs for the needy.

Speaking on WISN-TV over the weekend, Baldwin said she wants tax cuts that help the middle class, and she pointed to her unusual alliance with Johnson.

“Politics makes strange bedfellows, and if he’s a ‘no,’ I welcome that,” she said. “I’m a ‘no’ for a very different reason. I think the cuts go way too far. They were put together very hastily this last week in the middle of the night. They have not been thought through, and in the end, I think it’s going to end up costing average people more.”

In a statement last week, Baldwin particularly took aim at the way the proposal cuts low-income health insurance and Medicaid, including by imposing new work requirements and ending Affordable Care Act tax credits. An analysis shows that more than 228,000 Wisconsinites could lose coverage under those cuts, among some 8.6 million total Americans to see their coverage affected.

“Donald Trump came into office promising to lower costs for families. Instead, Republicans are about to jack up the cost of health care for hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites, all so the wealthiest Americans can get richer,” Baldwin said in a statement. “Gutting Medicaid would be devastating for countless families in Wisconsin, and I won’t stand idly by while Republicans try to take away health care from Wisconsinites.”

The legislation squeaked narrowly out of the House on Thursday by just one vote, with two Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against it, two more Republicans abstaining and one voting present.

It faces similar challenges in the Senate, although margins are not as slim. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority, so as few as four defectors could prevent the bill from going through.