House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) denied that the “big, beautiful bill” the House passed last week would lead to the United States spending more money.
During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” the House speaker responded to a statement made by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on the program earlier, where he called the spending cuts on the bill funding President Trump’s agenda “wimpy and anemic.”
“I think the cuts currently in the bill are wimpy and anemic, but I still would support the bill even with wimpy and anemic cuts if they weren’t going to explode the debt,” Paul said earlier on the program.
Paul has been a vocal critic of the bill, saying he is a firm “no” on the House bill unless it removes the $4 trillion debt limit hike. However, Johnson said the move is a “critically important thing to do.”
“It does not mean that we’re going to spend more money,” he added. “We’re extending the debt ceiling to show to creditors, the bond markets, the stock market, that the Congress is serious about this.
“President Trump is dialed in 100 percent. He is a visionary leader. He does not want to spend more money. And he has the same concern about the national debt that Rand Paul and I do.”
Johnson said that while he agrees with the Republican senator that “the greatest threat to our national security and deficits are a serious problem,” he believes Paul is missing “the fact that we are quite serious about this.”
“This is the biggest spending cut, I think in the history of government on planet earth,” he added.
“Now, is it enough? Of course not,” he continued. “But we have a very delicate balance, and we have to start the process. I liken this to an aircraft carrier. You don’t turn an aircraft carrier on a dime. It takes a mile of open ocean. And so, it took us decades to get into this situation. This is a big step to begin to turn that aircraft carrier.”
House Republicans moved forward with plans to raise the nation’s debt ceiling by $4 trillion as part of the legislative package, as the Treasury Department warns the government risks defaulting on its more than $36 trillion debt in the coming months.
