Ron Johnson was the focus at the Madison Club on Monday. The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate weighed in a variety of topics during a WisPolitics event in Madison, including the Bush tax cuts,which the Oshkosh businessman says ought to be extended. “The last thing we need to do in a weakened economy is raise taxes, on anybody,” said Johnson. Johnson, who’s looking to defeat Senator Russ Feingold in November, said taxes are only part of the problem, and spending is the other part. “In 2000, our total federal budget was about $1.7 trillion. Now it’s $3.5 trillion. It’s doubled in ten years. It’s a spending problem not a taxing problem, and the fact of the matter is if we increase taxes in this economy we’re going to get less tax revenue.”
But Johnson also made it clear that tax rates are too high. “It gets down to the point of okay, what level of taxation is the right amount, the sweet spot that actually still propels and creates incentive for business people to want to go out and produce . . . to want to create jobs, versus a tax rate that starts destroying that incentive?” Johnson, who said his own personal income taxes could approach a rate of fifty percent if the Bush tax cuts are repealed, said “a fundamental freedom is the right to your own property, to what you’ve earned. And when we’re paying fifty percent or more in taxes, truthfully we’re fifty percent free.”
Johnson said he’s not antigovernment, but that the federal government has gotten too big and ineffective. “I’m not reflexively antigovernment. I want a government that is effective, that actually has effective regulation. I want a government that protects the free market system, that actually enforces antitrust, that prevents large businesses from monopolistic practices.” He also wants to work on repealing health care reform, and said that problems with Social Security have gone unaddressed for too long. And Johnson did not back of on an earlier comparison he’d made, between Social Security and a ponzi scheme. “The money’s gone, it’s spent. $2.5 trillion is gone. It wasn’t invested. You just tell me how that’s different than a ponzi scheme. Now, does that mean I that don’t want to figure out a way to preserve Social Security? Absolutely not.” Is it possible to scrap health care reform? “I think it is, I’m very hopeful,” said Johnson. “We’re not going to get repealed with President Obama there, but get a good Republican candidate for president and then we can get it repealed. I think there may be a real groundswell for that.” Johnson predicted that there would be a great deal of anger as the nation moves closer to implementation of health care reform, which will “destroy our health care system.”
Johnson was also asked about the war in Afghanistan. “President Obama was not committed to victory and I think its just created a huge mess,” said Johnson. “Unless we are committed to victory, I would say we pull the troops out, quite honestly.” Johnson said he’d favor outright declarations of war, as opposed to war resolutions. Following his remarks, Johnson took questions from reporters, including whether or not he’ll sell his stock in BP. “I think that will eventually happen, but I going to do it based on market conditions,” he said. “I haven’t made a decision on that yet.”