Senate Republicans Resist House Budget Proposal: “They’re Going to Inflate the Debt”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is seen in the U.S. Capitol during a series of votes on Thursday, April 3, 2025. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

Sen. Ron Johnson said Sunday that he believes he has enough GOP colleagues on board with his opposition to the House’s “big, beautiful bill” to stall its progress and propose changes. The Wisconsin Republican’s remarks highlight the potentially challenging path ahead for the comprehensive domestic policy package, which narrowly passed the House last week.

As House Speaker Mike Johnson urges his Senate colleagues not to “meddle” with the bill too much, fiscal hawks in the Senate have indicated they won’t support the package in its current form. “We have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit,” Sen. Johnson stated on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’

Sen. Johnson and some of his Senate colleagues have expressed concerns that the House bill could result in soaring federal deficits, a criticism that Speaker Johnson has dismissed. He noted that the “first goal” of the budget reconciliation process “should be to reduce the deficit; this actually increases it.” He has repeatedly emphasized the need for the federal government to return to “pre-pandemic level spending.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also commented on Sunday, describing the spending cuts in the House bill as “wimpy and anemic.” “But I would still support the bill, even with wimpy and anemic cuts, if they weren’t going to explode the debt,” Paul remarked on “Fox News Sunday.” “The problem is the math doesn’t add up; they’re going to explode the debt,” he added.

An analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office indicated that the sweeping package could increase the deficit by $3.8 trillion over the next decade.