Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Interview with Ron Johnson

Interview

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BARTIROMO: Well, there you go.

That was Speaker Pelosi threatening to kill any infrastructure agreement unless her pie-in-the-sky tax-and-spending plan moves through budget reconciliation, a bit of a shakedown under way, even as she and colleagues peg the cost of that plan at $3.5 trillion, when, in fact, the package will cost in excess of $5.5 trillion, according to the Committee For a Responsible Budget.

Joining me right now to take us behind all of these negotiations is Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. He sits on the Senate Budget, Homeland Relations and Foreign -- Foreign Affairs committees.

Senator, good to see you this morning. Thanks very much for being here.

You have said you will vote no on both of these plans. Tell us why.

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): Good morning, Maria.

Well, I -- it was interesting. When you started that clip from Nancy Pelosi, I thought it was going to be the one where she said you had to pass Obamacare to figure out what's in it. And, of course, Chuck Schumer tried to do the same thing last week. He actually tried to proceed to a bill that wasn't negotiated.

There was no -- there's no legislation whatsoever. And, still, they wanted us to vote to proceed to that particular bill. The fact of matter is, Maria, we're over 20.5 -- $28.5 trillion in debt.

The Democrats, on a completely partisan basis, just passed about a $1.9 trillion supposedly COVID relief package; $700 billion of that isn't even spent until 2022 through 2028. And so we're mortgaging our kids' future. We can't continue to deficit-spend, the way Democrats want to do so.

So, one of the things I have been talking about is the fact that you have that $700 billion of -- it's not COVID relief. It's -- it's new entitlement programs, further mortgaging our kids' future. Why don't we repurpose that amount of money and spend that on infrastructure?

Because we do need to upgrade our infrastructure. Everybody agrees on that. But we shouldn't be doing it with more borrowing, more deficit spending.

BARTIROMO: Yes. They have got real gimmicks here to make it look like it's $3.5 trillion, but Maya MacGuineas tells me it's actually $5.5 trillion.

The Committee For a Responsible Budget writes: "In order to fit these proposals within a $3.5 trillion budget target, lawmakers intend to have some policies expire before the end of the 10-year budget window, using this criticized budget gimmick to hide -- gimmick to high the actual cost."

How much does this plan actually cost, $3.5 trillion or $3.5 trillion?

JOHNSON: My guess is at least $5.5 trillion. And that's just a 10-year budget window. If you actually do the net present value, in terms of what's the long-term costs, it's far higher.

And, of course, what they're doing is, they're creating new entitlement programs. They did that with the COVID relief bill. They're going to be doing it with this reconciliation package, this reckless tax-and-spend spending spree.

So what they will do is, they will put in -- create a new entitlement program. They're going to say it's going to run out in two years or three years, whatever it takes to get a score within that $3.5 trillion mind- numbing figure. I mean, that's how out of control this is, is, I guess they have determined that the American public simply won't tolerate more than $3.5 trillion.

But they will they will fit the scoring of this thing to that $3.5 trillion, recognizing the fact that these programs, once implemented, they will never go away. So, that's why Maya MacGuineas comes up with about $5 trillion to 5.5 trillion. But I would argue that even understates it.

So, my final point is, I don't know why any Republican would cooperate with them in passing this reckless spend-and-tax spree, because what they're doing by pulling out the infrastructure, the thing that everybody agrees on, that's going to create a $500 billion, $600 billion, $700 billion hole that Democrats will fill...

BARTIROMO: Yes.

JOHNSON: ... with more entitlement spending. I don't know why any Republican would cooperate with that.

BARTIROMO: So, real quick, people want to know, are they going to be able to push through the sky-high spending levels, as well as much higher taxes? They want to take capital gains all the way up to 43.4 percent.

Will they be able to get it through?

JOHNSON: If 50 Democrats vote for it, they will be able to do that, yes. That's -- that's budget reconciliation.

BARTIROMO: All right.

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BARTIROMO: Oh, they're making bets all right.

We're back with Senator Ron Johnson.

That was President Biden at a CNN town hall on Wednesday, kowtowing to China and Russia once again, saying that his buddies Xi Jinping and Putin believe that oligarchs and autocrats will dominate the 21st century.

Senator, my question is, what is he doing about it? How would you assess the U.S.-China policy?

JOHNSON: Well, my first thought when he said -- talked about a divided nation, he should stop dividing this nation. And he's done nothing to unify and heal this nation, as he said in his inaugural address.

The other thing we need to do is, we need a strong America. And you don't strengthen America by weakening it with this massive debt and addition of the newest entitlements, more deficit spending. We actually have to concentrate on having a powerful military. And the Biden administration is doing anything they can to weaken the military.

No, we have massive, double-digit increases in every other aspect of the budget, but the increases in both defense and Department of Homeland Security, they're de minimis. They won't even keep up with inflation. So, in fact, we will actually be reducing the size of the military and DHS, from a stand -- from a budgetary standpoint, according to Biden.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

JOHNSON: And then you look at this weakness around the globe, crawling back the deal with Iran, what he's doing in Afghanistan, I mean, the travesty that that's going to create.

He's just showing weakness globally. And our adversaries notice that and they will act on that.

BARTIROMO: There was a lot of news pertaining to China on Friday and over the weekend.

First of all, last week, the U.S. dropped visa fraud cases against five Chinese researchers. I was just outraged by this. One of the researchers actually said: Oh, yeah, I lied on my visa -- my visa application, and I was tasked by my supervisor to bring information back. They still dropped the charges.

China is also banning school curriculum, tutoring companies from going public. They're banning foreign investment. They're cracking down on Chinese companies and stocks.

Meanwhile, you have got a lot of deals under way still with Hunter Biden. You have done an investigation.

Here's Peter Schweizer on "Mornings With Maria" on FOX Business with me this past week. Listen to what he said about Hunter Biden's dealmaking as it relates to the Secret Service following him around. Watch.

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PETER SCHWEIZER, AUTHOR, "SECRET EMPIRES": In the middle of 2014, he does something very unusual. He tells the Secret Service: I don't want protection. I do not want Secret Service agents traveling with me.

And the Secret Service has confirmed that's the case. What's interesting, though, Maria is, when you look through the e-mails, there is still plenty of correspondents with the Secret Service as it relates to travel in Europe and domestically in the United States.

The one place that we know that he traveled multiple times, but does not communicate with the Secret Service is on trips to China.

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BARTIROMO: So it's very curious, Senator. He wants Secret Service following him around throughout Europe and the U.S., but not in China. He does want those meetings revealed.

JOHNSON: Well, again, that's the $64,000 question. What does China know about Hunter Biden and Joe Biden's business dealings and that vast web of foreign financial entanglements within China?

It was Senator Grassley and I that requested those Secret Service records to find out when they did offer protection for about 5.5 years from 2009 to 2014. The day after a TIME magazine article was published talking about his involvement on Burisma, he supposedly ended the Secret Service protection.

But then Peter is right. Subsequent e-mails off of his computer showed that he was talking about Secret Service protection not only in 2015, but now we also know that the Secret Service intervened when his sister-in-law, who he was having an affair with, dumped his gun off in that dumpster, and the Secret Service went to try and get the background check information from the gun owner or the gun shop owner.

BARTIROMO: Unbelievable.

JOHNSON: So, the Secret Service is not being -- and so we have asked for - - requested for information on that, because they have no records of it.

So, once again, we subpoenaed FBI Director Wray. He slow-walked our request. We basically didn't get squat. Now Secret Service, they gave us the initial records. Past that point, they haven't given us squat. What workers they have given are highly redacted.

So these agencies are covering for the Bidens. They have always been covering for them. Even though he supposedly ended Secret Service protection, they still apparently provided it as well, but off the books.

Who knows what's happening? These agencies are not being forthright. They're not being transparent. And, quite honestly, Congress is losing its oversight capability.

I have sent two letters with five members of the Homeland Security Committee on it. There's a law that says, when five members of the Homeland Security Committee request information, the agencies shall turn it over. CDC is not turning us over the records as it relates to the teachers union involvement with some of the CDC's pronouncement.

Or they are also not turning over Anthony Fauci's unredacted e-mails. So I'm calling on Senator Peters to use the committee to subpoena those records, because they're not responding to our lawful requests, saying that they shall turn those records over to us.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

JOHNSON: This is a huge problem, Maria.

BARTIROMO: Yes, meanwhile -- of course.

JOHNSON: The administration is just blowing off Congress.

BARTIROMO: Yes.

Meanwhile, Tom Barrack, a former aide to President Trump, sat in jail for four nights last week, and then was served with the most expensive bond ever. They say he's representing the UAE.

Last week, Xi Jinping said that Hong Kong is going to likely replace New York as the CCP's fund-raising venue of choice. President Biden puts a memo out and says it's dangerous to do business in Hong Kong. That's it, after they marched in there and threw freedom fighters in jail, like Jimmy Lai, who's still in jail.

Senator, it's good to see you. We certainly will keep a spotlight on this.

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