Sen Ron Johnson got his Scrooge on early this year when he appeared on Fox with Maria Barfiromo to lie about things like the Affordable Care Act and the filibuster. However, he did take the time to point out that the government couldn't possibly afford Trump's plan to give Americans a $2,000 tax refund using the tariff money that Americans have been paying for months.
BARFIROMO: So what about these $2,000 checks that the president has been talking about with that fly in terms of passing the Congress, or do you expect that the only way that could actually see the light of day is through a second reconciliation package?
ROJO: We're $30 trillion in debt. We've averaged $1.9 trillion deficits over the last five years. Over the next 10 years, the projections are about $26 trillion in cumulative deficits. We have to address the deficit problem. We are on borrowed time here. So many people are whistling by the graveyard. If we're bringing revenue through the tariffs, that ought to be applied to reduce the deficit, not just to making cash payment to Americans.
BARFIROMO: It sounds like you would vote no in terms of $2,000 checks going to individuals.
ROJO: We can't afford it. I wish we were in a position to return the American public their money, but we're not. Again, we'll have at least a $2 trillion deficit this year. Again, that compares to prior to the pandemic. Trump had deficits; he's run about $800 billion. Obama, his last four years, $550 billion a year. Now we're $2 trillion? Completely unacceptable. We have to start focusing on that and doing something about it.
This just might be the first time a Republican was so dismissive of a tax refund. Hell, they usually brag about tax refunds that aren't really tax refunds, just redistribution of wealth upward.
It should also be noted that RoJo had no problem whatsoever dishing out tax breaks to himself and his campaign donors in the 2017 GOP Tax Scam. And he had no problem doing it again with the One Big Bag of Bullshit bill. And he was all ready to grab that half a million dollars in recompense for being investigated for his criminal conduct.
It's not a matter of the deficit being too big. It's a matter of people like RoJo having their priorities all screwed up.
